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Month: May 2018

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Best Practices Body Language Entrepreneurship Human Resources Investing Management Marketing Negotiations Sales Skills Women In Business

Watch Emotional Abuse When Negotiating With A Bully

“Emotional abuse only occurs when you allow the abuser to control you. To defeat him, control his abusive efforts.” -Greg Williams, The Master Negotiator & Body Language Expert

When negotiating with a bully, watch the emotional abuse you incur and mind your responses to it.

Bullies make some people experience an array of feelings in a negotiation. They do so for the pleasure of feeling superior to the other negotiator in an effort to exert their dominance. The emotional feelings they attempt to invoke can range from fear to hate to happiness. Yes, bullies can make you feel happy as the result of relinquishing the pressure they’ve applied to you. That’s another reason why you should monitor your emotions. You want to check them so you can display the proper response, based on your position in the negotiation at particular points. When it comes to watching your emotions take note of the following.

Fear:

Fear can invoke primal actions within you. When fearful, your normal thought process shuts down. Depending on the degree of fear you experience, your body prepares for a fight, flight, or freeze scenario. That deliberation can cause you to be thrown off your negotiation game (i.e. forget the negotiation strategies you’d planned to implement).

When you sense that you’re experiencing fear in a negotiation, note its cause. Consider to what degree its source will devastate you and your future position. The point is, diminish your thoughts of fear by contemplating how you can assuage it before continuing the negotiation, and recognize when it has you in its grips.

Anger:

Anger is another stealer of normal thoughts. It can be stoked by fear, which is also the reason you should control your perspective of fear and ager.

When angered, you can lose your perspective and rationalization. Thus, to negotiate from a mindset of anger will not serve you, it serves the other negotiator, instead.

Therefore, be aware of when the other negotiator is intentionally attempting to gouge you by instilling fear into the negotiation. Also, be mindful of what his attempts might look like before entering the negotiation. This can be accomplished by role-playing ahead of time. Just be mindful of elucidating your mind to how fear might be used against you, and be prepared to thwart such efforts.

Happiness:

Most people seek happiness as a constant state of mind. Our body seeks it too. Thus, when we’re not in a state of happiness, our mind will attempt to guide our actions back towards that state. It will also do ‘things’ to stay in that state, even if those ‘things’ are to our future detriment. It’s because of the latter that you should be hyper-vigilant when you’re in a state of happiness that’s been caused by a bully’s actions. You may not be off the hook. Instead, you may have been unknowingly placed deeper onto one.

To combat a bully’s effort to mentally manipulate you through the use of happiness, understand his motives for doing so. If his efforts don’t serve you, don’t appease him by succumbing to this tactic. Remain stern.

Anyone’s emotions can be strained when negotiating with a bully. Suffice it to say, you should stay on top of your emotions when negotiating with a bully more so than with other types of negotiators. Bullies can invoke extreme passion within you, which is why it’s so important to be mindful. If you’re aware of what can ‘set you off’, and not allow it to cloud your actions or judgment under such circumstances, you’ll be able to think clearer and negotiate better. That alone will give the bully cause for doubt, which means you’ll be turning his tactics against him. Doing so will allow you to maintain greater control in the negotiation … and everything will be right with the world.

Remember, you’re always negotiating! 

After reading this article, what are you thinking? I’d really like to know. Reach me at Greg@TheMasterNegotiator.com

To receive Greg’s free 5-minute video on reading body language or to sign up for the “Negotiation Tip of the Week” and the “Sunday Negotiation Insight” click here http://www.themasternegotiator.com/greg-williams/

#bully #bullies #bullying #uncoversecrets #hiddensecrets #Negotiation #Personal Development #HandlingObjections #Negotiator #HowToNegotiateBetter #CSuite #TheMasterNegotiator #psychology

Categories
Growth Leadership Personal Development

7 Ways You Can Spot a Disengaged Employee

Have you seen them? The workplace zombies? The employees slumped over at their desk just merely getting by thanks to a fourth cup of cappuccino? I’m talking about the walking dead – also known as disengaged employees.

You have probably seen them, but just sort of ignored them. The Gallup Organization says that worldwide, disengaged employees out-number engaged employees by nearly 2 – 1.  Even worse, 24% of workers worldwide are “actively disengaged,” which means that they’re unhappy, unproductive, and unlikely to ever bring a ray of sunshine to their co-workers. Actually, they’re most likely going to share their negativity with the rest of the team like a really nasty cold virus.

Employee disengagement is a silent killer of productivity, performance, and thus, profitability.

As an executive leader, NOT seeing these disengaged team members right in front of your face is a huge issue. After all, you can’t address a problem if you don’t even realize it exists. Don’t feel bad – sometimes we’re just too close to the problem. To help you spot the perhaps not-so-obvious, here are

7 Ways You Can Spot a Disengaged Employee:

1. Lack of teamwork. Disengaged employees may resist activities that require collaboration and cooperating with others. Often, they become a “lone wolf,” and interact with team members as little as possible, skipping out on team meetings and project strategy sessions.

2. Declining quality/quantity of work. This is especially an issue when the employee formerly produced high-quality work. The important thing is to notice that his work output has changed for the worst.

3. Complaining. Pay particular attention to negative comments about her work, supervisors, leadership, and the organization as a whole.

4. Apathetic attitude. Unhappy employees have an “I don’t give a hoot” attitude. They have no ownership in team/organization productivity and success.

5. Symptoms of deeper issues, such as depression or psychological problems. These might include unprofessional appearance, erratic mood swings, evidence of possible substance abuse, increased workplace injuries/safety violations, disconnecting from team members and not participating in team meetings and gatherings.

6. Absenteeism/tardiness. Employees who have checked out often do just that. They come into work late and leave early. They call in sick, take all of their vacation/personal days early in the year, and take excessive/long breaks and lunches.

7. Blaming. You know you have a problem when you hear a formerly engaged employee undermining, criticizing, or condemning the work of team members and peers.

These symptoms may seem totally obvious reading them here, but what’s interesting about employee disengagement is that often the immediate supervisor is the last to know when he’s got a raging case of it right in front of him. Maybe it’s because it’s tough to see when you’re so close to the situation. Or maybe you need to have a “sixth sense” to pick up on these symptoms.

Regardless, here are three things you can do now, today, to spot and hopefully rescue any team member who has one foot on a banana peel and the other in the metaphorical grave:

  • Ask open-ended questions, such as “How are things going, Andrew?” or “What do you think about these changes, Lynn?”
  • Shut your trap and listen! Remember that the word ‘listen’ spells ‘silent’ when scrambled.
  • Open your eyes and observe others. What kind of body language are they using? Is it congruent with what they’re saying? Yogi Berra famously quipped, “You can observe a lot just by watching.”

The sooner you act, the more likely you’ll be successful in bringing your “dead” employee back to life. Stay tuned here as I share tips and strategies for getting and keeping your team members engaged and alive.

YOUR TURN:

  • How are you able to spot employee disengagement?
  • How have you addressed the issue of the walking dead?
  • What tips do you have for others who struggle with engaging team members?
  • Please leave a comment on my blog below and share your insights with the community.

For more resources on leadership and employee engagement, be sure to sign up for our monthly Ezine and you will receive our report: “7 of Your Biggest People Problems…Solved.”

You might also like:

Leadership Team Accelerated Results Program

6 Signs Your Ego Runs Your Business: 6 Ways Leaders Can Rein It In

Managing for Maximum Performance

Jennifer Ledet, CSP, is a leadership consultant and professional speaker (with a hint of Cajun flavor) who equips leaders from the boardroom to the mailroom to improve employee engagement, teamwork, and communication.  In her customized programs, leadership retreats, keynote presentations, and breakout sessions, she cuts through the BS and talks through the tough stuff to solve your people problems.

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Categories
Best Practices Growth Health and Wellness Human Resources Management

Retain Talent: Pay Attention to Employees

Think back through your career and recall the best boss you’ve ever had. What made them so special and unique?

Chances are better than not, they gave you authentic, frequent and personalized attention. Whether it was support for a project you were working or inquiries into your goals and aspirations, your best boss invested attention in you. They knew to retain your talent, they needed to uplift, support and invest in you.

Good leaders know their service to employees is key to retaining top talent and developing a staff of engaged, happy employees. Here’s the secret:

Recognize Hard Work.  It’s not enough to reward employees when they knock a project out of the park. Hard work, even on daily, mundane tasks is essential. It’s the tedious daily grind that can wear down a person’s mental well-being. As a leader, ensure you’re recognizing their effort.

Engage Often. Don’t just wait until the scheduled one-on-one to inquire about an employee’s work or their well-being. Stop by and check in periodically. Be careful not to appear as a micromanager. Instead, encourage the employee to use you to help meet their deadlines and objectives.

Watch and observe. Pay attention to the amount of time an employee spends behind the computer. Acknowledge if a team member is seeming particularly frazzled, stressed or overwhelmed and volunteer to help them if possible. Encourage employees to get rest and recover, even if it means stepping away from the computer and getting fresh air.

Get to know them. Understand their priorities. Does their family rank top of mind to them? Consider encouraging them to plan a vacation or take time off. Refrain from messaging them after hours and ask questions to show interest. Perhaps it’s a promotion they are working toward. Set up a mentor for them, a coach or development planning path. Be an accountability partner helping them reach their goals. Whatever they consider being most important to their life, understand it and see how you can help them achieve it.

Be genuine. Most everyone can detect someone’s sincerity in their interest. Don’t praise for the sake of praising. Instead, be sincere in your compliments and comments. When giving feedback, acknowledge your genuine desire for their success. Be meaningful in your questions and give everyone your undivided attention in every interaction.

Surprise elements. Jot down little notes about your employees to help you remember their favorite food, dessert, coffee or flower. Keep note of their anniversaries, birthdays and special celebratory events. Surprise them on special dates, or just for the heck of it. Either way, your attention to detail will not go unnoticed.

Employees are your greatest asset. If you want to drive accountability, boost productivity and create an engaged team of people, pay attention to what matters most to them.

Categories
Culture Growth Leadership Personal Development

Managing Bias with Behavior

A great deal of time, effort and money is being invested to reduce or eliminate bias in our society.  It seems we are now hyper sensitive to any kind of bias that we may see it even when it might not exist.  Starbucks is now on the front line of this investment.  How do we manage this hypersensitivity and maintain our trusting relationships?  Please notice I asked how to manage bias and not reduce or eliminate.  Managing bias is all we can do. The purpose of this blog to explain why and how.

Two African American men were arrested at a Starbucks in Philadelphia in early May 2018.  Their arrest spurred accusations of racial bias.  They asked to use the restroom.  The manager explained, “Only paying customers can use the restroom.”  The men sat without purchasing anything.  Soon after the manger asked them to leave.  Her justification was the policy at this Starbucks i.e. “only paying customers can occupy a table.”  The men objected to leaving the store claiming to be waiting for a colleague for a business meeting.

To make up for his incident, Starbucks funded a $200,000 inner city grant program.  The two African American men agreed to facilitate training for inner city entrepreneurs with the money.  Starbucks corporate also decided to close all 8,000 corporate owned stores on May 29th for an all-day training program to help its employees to avoid racial bias. (Jason Hanna, 2018)

Was there bias?  Did the manager act inappropriately?  Did the African American men behave inappropriately?  Why were the police called?  Was it because of racial bias?  According to two decades of research we now know all have unconscious biases which can influence our behaviors and/or our decisions. (Mahzarin R. Banaji, 2003)

We cannot control our bias.  It is often unconscious because this is how our brains work.  We associate people with the probability of certain actions based on our experiences. These associations are helpful.  They can also be harmful because they can create biases.

Here is the good news.  It is more useful to accept the fact that we have biases and to behave accordingly.  It is better to accept our biases than to think we can remove them through an all-day training because the research shows removal of bias is impossible.  I could make the case the African American men in Starbucks acted inappropriately because they behaved contrary to the store policies.  I can also make the argument the Starbucks manager behaved inappropriately by calling the police without optimum communication and without seeing any provocation from the men.

If we have bias and cannot remove it with training, what are we to do?  The key is to follow specific behaviors to assure we are always respectful.  Furthermore, it’s useful to have policies which always serve customers.  The African American men may not have been customers that moment because they did not buy anything at that moment.  They were certainly potential customers.  Their behaviors may not have matched the exact store policy, but they were not being disrespectful.  If they had behaved disrespectfully, the manger would have been justified to call the police if they refused to stop.

Our “unconscious” bias is one of the reasons why the typical performance management process often backfires.  A typical performance discussion will have two people with unconscious biases.  Rarely does the performance management process provide an opportunity for the two participants (manager and employee) to acknowledge their bias.  This will create a barrier to trust and communication.

How do you manage bias?  You always behave with respect, you articulate your bias, you optimally communicate what you need to do, and you avoid tolerating those who behave disrespectfully.  Policies should not be treated as inflexible law.  They are guidelines for which there are always exceptions.  The key is to always behave with respect, to consider how to serve customers, and to act respectfully even when those customers are being disrespectful.

Starbucks is investing a great deal of time and money in an all-day training that will not accomplish its purpose.  Perhaps they should just acknowledge bias and conduct respectful behavior training instead.

Check out the interview on C-Suite Best Seller TV to learn more about how to stop leadership malpractice and replace the typical performance review: https://www.c-suitetv.com/video/best-seller-tv-wally-hauck-stop-the-leadership-malpractice/

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.

Bibliography

Jason Hanna, K. S. (2018, May 3). The men arrested at Starbucks are paying it forward big time. Retrieved from cnn.com: https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/03/us/starbucks-arrest-agreements/index.html

Mahzarin R. Banaji, M. H. (2003). How (Un)ethical Are You? Harvard Business Review.

For more, read on: https://c-suitenetwork.com/advisors/advisor/wally-hauck/

Categories
Growth Personal Development

The 4 Phases of Business Development Need Different Strategies for Brand Growth and Survival

As your CPG brand grows and develops, it will move through 4 different stages. It’s essential to your brand’s survival to recognize the stage you’re in, and what each one requires before you get there and hit a brick wall.

Understanding what to do and what to look for in each stage well in advance can provide the tools you’ll need to get through the imminent challenges ahead. To ease these challenges, you must take steps now!

To begin, understand that CPG brand-building, unlike personal and digital product brand-building, depends on sales of your physical branded product. It must be available for sale on a constant basis. If your product is out of stock, your brand-building efforts will be damaged. This could ruin your reputation for reliability, and not to mention destroy your brand image.

You might say you’ll sell your product online and never run out of stock. But most CPG brands want to be in brick-and-mortar retailers. According to the Department of Commerce, 90% of all retail sales still come from physical stores!

Your goal should be to get into multiple chain stores. Each store pays you with one big check for one big purchase to get your brand in several stores, in front of many customers at once. Quantity purchases are the quickest way your product will get discovered, and it’s how profit will grow most efficiently. All of this requires vigilant distribution management.

Let’s take a look at each stage and discuss the challenges to your brand, and how to overcome them.

1. You’re about to launch your company or you’ve just recently launched. You’re running on your investors’ money, or your own savings.

  • The Risk: Sales don’t happen fast enough. You run out of money before achieving a positive cash flow.
  • Overcome: Even before launch, understand what everyone in the retail and distribution process needs from your logo, brand, label, and package design. Understand how you will gain market access—where is the low-hanging fruit sales-wise?

2. You launched! You have now secured a handful of good customers who are paying your bills.

  • The Risk: All your eggs are in one basket. Any interruption now could mean the death of your brand.
  • Overcome: Get more customers—quick! Even if they’re small, the combined sales could offset a sudden interruption by a larger customer. Resist any temptation to create your product for a store’s generic brand—they’ll play you off against a producer that charges a few cents less.

3. Now that you have a positive cash flow, you’re expanding into new markets. You’re gaining new customers.

  • The Risk: At this point, most businesses fail. It’s easy to spread yourself too thin here. You might’ve drastically underestimated the cost of sales, and the cost of customer retention.
  • Overcome: Start slow. Make small, manageable mistakes. Learn the real cost of services and sales before expansion. Develop one market at a time, and carefully. One market may cost you more than another—leave those for later. Learn only what’s needed.

4. You’ve expanded! You’re making larger sales—regularly! You’re starting to become a major player. You negotiate supply costs due to scale efficiencies.

  • The Risk: Your company now has strict labor divisions with areas that specialize in many types of work. This seems more efficient, but your people are now less engaged. Sales are taken for granted. Your people become isolated and unaffected by sales. Your branded product becomes less and less relevant to the market—you’re in danger of getting knocked off by the competition, who has a more relevant product.
  • Overcome: Boost customer service and sales to the very top of your business. Recognize and appreciate the crucial role they play in your brand’s success. Develop official lines of communication directly from sales to marketing and production, so they can stay ahead of any market changes, your competition, and consumer feedback.

It’s quite the rocket you’re riding! Realize and understand what each stage means to your success—be prepared in advance!

Happy Sales in 2018!

For more, read on: http://c-suitenetworkadvisors.com/advisor/michael-houlihan-and-bonnie-harvey/

Categories
Best Practices Entrepreneurship Management Marketing Negotiations Sales Skills Women In Business

How To Uncover Hidden Secrets In Negotiations

“Secrets are cloaked in darkness until they’re exposed by light. When suspension falls on hidden secrets, let the light shine brightly.” –Greg Williams, The Master Negotiator & Body Language Expert

“Don’t let what you know cause you to miss what you don’t know!” Those were the words of one negotiation partner to another, after they’d concluded a negotiation that appeared to be clouded by the doubt that there may have been hidden secrets burrowed in the words of their negotiation counterpart.

Upon reflection, the speaker of those words realized that there had been signals that he’d misperceived. He wondered about those signals as he pondered to what degree they might have covered hidden secrets.

In your negotiations, how much do you miss, due to what you think you already know? There are encoded messages within the words we use to communicate. Some contain hidden messages that carry hidden thoughts.

Note the following to gain more insight into the hidden secrets in the messages sent and received in your negotiations.

1. Take note when the real meaning of a word doesn’t carry the intent of the meaning you think it’s attempting to convey. That’s to say, note when you suspect that there may be an unspoken meaning of the word(s). You’ll experience a sensation of intuition when that occurs; take heed of this phenomenon when it happens. It will be your alert signal beckoning your attention.

  • They’ll be times when you sense there’s an implied meaning that’s not conveyed in the delivery of the words spoken. When you have such a sensation, be attentive to what you sensed that drew your attention to the feeling of suspect that you have. Uncovering that hidden meaning will allow you to uncover hidden secrets that the other negotiator may be attempting to conceal.

2. When people speak of themselves in the third person, become more attentive. They’re distancing themselves from their words.

  • When negotiating, you should always be attentive to everything that’s occurring in your environment. When it comes to someone speaking in the third person, you should become more attentive. Psychologically, he’s placing distance between himself and his words. He may be doing so due to his nervousness, his desire to protect something that you’ve gotten close to uncovering, or from sensing that he may have disclosed something about his statement that’s untrue. Regardless, his action was more than likely brought on by some action the two of you were engaged in. If you sense such is the case, pursue the line of interaction that put him in his third person state of mind. There’ll be something of interest there that may benefit you in the negotiation.

3. Compare your assumptions of what you thought would occur prior to the negotiation, to what actually occurred in the negotiation.

  • Engaging in a mental reflection process at the conclusion of a negotiation will allow you greater insights, per the way you were thinking prior to the negotiation. Your post insights will allow you to sharpen your perception about the perspective occurrences of future negotiations. That, in turn, will allow you to uncover hidden thoughts about the way you think. Knowing that, should allow you to become more circumspective as you engage in future negotiation.

There will always be some form of secrecy in any negotiation. If you possess a heightened sense of awareness when perceiving suspected hidden meanings, your reward will be in the uncovering of those secrets. That will be an insight that you can use to benefit your negotiation position … and everything will be right with the world.

Remember, you’re always negotiating! 

After reading this article, what are you thinking? I’d really like to know. Reach me at Greg@TheMasterNegotiator.com

To receive Greg’s free 5-minute video on reading body language or to sign up for the “Negotiation Tip of the Week” and the “Sunday Negotiation Insight” click here http://www.themasternegotiator.com/greg-williams/

#uncoversecrets #hiddensecrets #Negotiation #Personal Development #HandlingObjections #Negotiator #HowToNegotiateBetter #CSuite #TheMasterNegotiator #psychology

Categories
Culture Management Marketing Negotiations

Commit to Clients and Customers

Consider the amount of money that goes into acquiring a new customer. Paying sales professionals, product development, marketing, advertising, media, the list is endless. Many of our business costs are associated to attract new customers for the sake of our business growth.

Imagine if companies were to spend as much attention on retaining a customer than they do try to earn a new one. When we show our clients, customers, patients, members and shoppers that we pay attention to their needs, we are not only likely to retain them, we will most certainly create advocates in them as well.

A brilliant book on elevating the customer experience is Never Lose a Customer Again by Joey Coleman, I loved this line in his book ‘it’s time to stop thinking B2B or B2C the future of business is H2H’ (human to human)

Follow these 5 strategies to give professional attention to your clients and show them the love they deserve.

1. Reach out. When was the last time you reached out and personally thanked your clients for being customers? Do you make it habit to routinely remind them of your joy in doing business with them? Consider deepening your relationship with frequent reach-outs. Find out how their business is doing and what you can do to make it better.

2. Examine the experience. Take the time to walk through the same business experience your current customers do. Call your phone number and listen to how you are addressed. Enter your workplace, office or shop as a customer and truly examine the impression being given. Evaluate your website and order your own products. Experience what your customers do when they are doing business with you. You may be surprised what you learn.

3. Know your numbers. Many companies measure their success through profitability, sales and growth. Perhaps consider adding a few extra numbers to the mix. Understand how many new sales come from repeat customers. Recognize your referral rates and most importantly know the churn your company suffers. Set meaningful goals – short and long-term – to retain more customers and improve your new sales from return clients.

4. Motivating Factors. Do you know what motivates your customer to buy from you? Maybe they buy because of price or convenience. Maybe it’s because of location or experience. Do your homework by asking your customers these questions. Know what motivates them to do business with you the first time, and continued business in the future will help you prioritize the areas of opportunity within your business.

5. Be a Partner. When was the last time your bank called you to ask how they can help you better invest your money to plan for a better future? Has your physician ever called to see how you were doing and offered you free literature on the topic you last discussed? This higher level of attention brings a personalized touch to any customer relationship. More so, it creates a partnership with you and your client that benefits their success and well-being as much as it does yours. It’s a win-win anyway you look at it. Partnering with your customer will create mutual trust and respect in the relationship.

Are you ready to pay more attention to your customers? Are you ready to heighten your professional relationships and invest more in their success? Pick up a copy of Joey Coleman’s “How Not to Lose a Customer” and read his strategies for investing time and energy in cultivating long-lasting client relationships.

Want to take your attention a step further? Pick up a copy of  Attention Pays. Learn how attention to employees will benefit your clients and ultimately your bottom line. Understand how evaluating your day-to-day activities can help you carve out time to focus on those who matter most – your customers.

Categories
Growth Leadership Operations Personal Development

You No Longer Have to Keep Up with Your Competition

I’ve got good news and bad news for you. The good news is that you no longer have to keep up with your competition; the bad news is that now you have to keep up with your customer – meaning your customer’s expectation of the service that makes you competitive.

Perhaps you just heard that your competitor is working hard to take away business from you – maybe they’re announcing a new product; maybe they’re advertising a major sale; maybe they’re opening a new location. Will any of these decisions cause your customers to leave you to do business with them?

Perhaps. After all, that is their goal. But what if you heard that your competition wasn’t competing with you on product, price, or location? What if you hear that they’re implementing a new customer service initiative? Their goal, you heard, is to have the best customer service in the industry.

Here’s my take: good for them. Let them go head-to-head with customer service and experience expectations based on the existing industry standards. I have a better idea: don’t let them set your bar. Let the best of the best, regardless of industry standards, set your bar.

What company do you think has the very best customer service? Is it Nordstrom, Apple, or Zappos? Is it the restaurant down the street that knows you by name and makes you feel like a guest in their home? Is it the inside sales rep from one of your suppliers who somehow always accommodates your deadlines and special requests, and always does so with an amazing attitude?

None of these companies or people may be in your industry, but they can be your benchmark for amazing customer service – service that is not based on customer expectations for your industry, but expectations from the best people and companies they’ve ever encountered.

Let me give you this message in a short, 11-word sentence:

The best customer service sets the bar for all customer service.

Customers know what good service is and their expectations today are formed by whoever gives them their best service experience, whether in or out of your industry.

So, back to the questions … What company do you think delivers the best service? Is it one of the iconic brands previously mentioned, or that local company? What is it that this business or person does to make you think they are the best? And, here is the more important question:

What do they do that you don’t do that you can do?

That’s where you start. Maybe it’s something you can copy although my suggestion is not to copy but to adopt and adapt. Adopt the strategy, but change or tweak it to make it uniquely yours. If you’re open to the best customer service practices from every industry, then you will spot trends and strategies before your competition. At that point, keeping up with your customers will be nothing but good news for your bottom line.

Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, award-winning keynote speaker, and New York Times bestselling business author. For information, contact 314-692-2200 or www.hyken.com. For information on The Customer Focus™ customer service training programs, go to www.thecustomerfocus.com. Follow on Twitter: @Hyken

Categories
Culture Growth Management Personal Development

What is “Influence Influenza” and What is the Cure?

Influenza is a series infection. It causes fever, aching, and is often debilitating and even deadly if the immune system is weak.  Managers suffer from “influence influenza” because they are often debilitated by the need to have difficult performance conversations.  There is an epidemic of an unwillingness and/or inability to influence employees to change their inappropriate behaviors and/or poor performance.  What are the root causes of this epidemic and what is the cure?

It is managers who suffer from this affliction because leaders understand how to give feedback.  Leaders understand the difference between control and influence and leaders know how to create followers.  Leaders know how to influence.

Root Causes

We are taught control techniques. We use performance appraisals and pay for performance carrots and stick to create change in behaviors.  Control means people are forced to do certain behaviors.  Influence means they want to do those behaviors. At a recent training conference for a major automobile manufacturer, my colleagues and I learned that the owners of dealerships were threatened with a fine if they didn’t attend the training. This is a perfect example of carrots and sticks control. This type of control technique damages motivation, engagement and cooperation.  It can even create anger.

Wells Fargo was fined millions for issuing fake credit card accounts and overcharging customers to lock them into new deals. (Prentice, 2016)  They not only provided monetary incentives for the employees to “sell” these deals, they also threatened employees with loss of employment if they failed to meet the goals.  This is an example of the standard form of control techniques.  Employees had to behave in a certain way. Customers were manipulated.

Managers are fearful to use influence because it requires effort, courage, and critical thinking. The carrot and stick approach is so much easier.  It is easy for a manager to set up an incentive program and/or make threats to get the behavior they want and then, if it doesn’t work, the manager can always blame and punish the employees.  This is exactly what Wells Fargo did. (Egan, 2016)  5,300 employees were fired.

A lack of trust prevents communication.  When trust is low, a manager is often off balance.  The lack of balance can create a lack of confidence, hesitation and/or procrastination.  According to the International Association of Business Communicators, trust can be created by treating others with integrity, respect, accomplishing tasks and agreeing on shared objectives.[1] When one or more of these elements are missing, a manager is off balance.  These elements can be managed if the manager is willing to make the effort and if they have the skills.

The Cure

Influence requires a deep appreciation of why behaviors must change. Instead of using carrots and sticks, people need and want a “Big Why” to change.  Managers who want to become leaders and who want to use influence must begin to communicate and reinforce the “Big Why” for employees.  They must be able to articulate the benefits the change will create and the consequences if it fails.

Finally, managers can learn to use the Socratic Method.  Asking powerful and useful questions is the best way to influence others.  This sounds simple and it is not easy. It requires critical thinking skills, patience, and an appreciation that employees might have habits that need to be changed.  A change in habit is difficult.  Managers who learn to ask great questions, with the proper tone, and with the helpful (even loving) intentions will begin to become a leader who knows how to influence others.

Managers who hesitate to address poor or unhelpful behaviors of employees likely have “influence influenza”.  It’s time for a cure. If we want our organizations to be optimally successful we must become leaders who influence and stop just being managers to try to control.

 

Check out the interview on C-Suite Best Seller TV to learn more about how to stop leadership malpractice and replace the typical performance review: https://www.c-suitetv.com/video/best-seller-tv-wally-hauck-stop-the-leadership-malpractice/

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.

For more, read on: https://c-suitenetwork.com/advisors/advisor/wally-hauck/

Bibliography:

Egan, M. (2016, September 9). 5,300 Wells Fargo Employees Fired Over 2 Million Phony Accounts. Retrieved from cnn.com: http://money.cnn.com/2016/09/08/investing/wells-fargo-created-phony-accounts-bank-fees/index.html

Prentice, R. (2016, September 19). Wells Fargo Goes Far to Cheat Customers, and It Was Predictable. Retrieved from utexas.edu: https://news.utexas.edu/2016/09/19/it-was-predictable-that-wells-fargo-cheated-customers

[1] The International Association of Business Communicators definition of trust

Categories
Marketing Personal Development

Three Cheap Ways to Know What Content Your Customers Want

There are time-honored ways of determining customers needs, ranging from surveys to focus groups. And your organization probably has spent years using these and other methods to determine how to deliver want customers want through your products and services. But do you know what content they want?

That question has become critically important with the rise of content marketing. We often know what product features our customers care about, but we aren’t sure of which content subjects will draw them to our products. And the traditional surveys and focus groups won’t answer the question, because they are too expensive to use for this purpose.

Instead, we present three cheap ways to know what your customers are interested in, so you can provide that content to them:

1. Web and other content analytics. Start with the content you already have. Which pages are visited the most? Which lead to conversions? Which emails get opened? Which social shares are clicked? Start with understanding which content is already performing and identify those subjects as ones to tackle more.

2. Search keywords. What are your customers searching for? Yes, look at Google Trends or other keyword tools to find out big trends, but how about your own customers using your site search? Do you know even what those subjects are? You might be surprised that you aren’t covering some of the most important subjects.

3. Social conversations. What are people talking about? Better, what are they complaining about? Those problems are what content marketing can solve. How do you listen to social conversations?

These digital methods of listening to what your customers want are:

  • Cheap
  • Up-to-the-minute
  • Unprompted

That last one is especially important because surveys and focus groups get answers only to the questions that are asked. Knowing what people are thinking about before you ask tells you what they will be searching for–which is how your content marketing attracts.