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Day: September 17, 2018

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Management Marketing Personal Development

Tips for Succeeding as a First-Time Manager

Jennifer Gluckow, founder of Sales in A New York Minute, knows a thing or two about sales. She’s also a first-rate manager with plenty of street cred. When she was placed in a sales management position, she quickly learned how to motivate her reps. Here’s what she shared with us about young and first-time managers in her recent Manage Smarter podcast.

Immediate Feedback

It’s always great when your younger reps make a sale. But, they need you most when the sale doesn’t happen. When you, and they, are first starting out, make sure they discuss their disappointments with you. These sessions allow you to point out what they could have said or done differently. The discussions also give you a chance to boost their ego, so they don’t get lost in negativity.

Mind the Age Gap

Long ago, presidential candidate Dan Quayle questioned the suitability of his opponent, Ronald Reagan, based on age. Reagan scored huge points, and went on to win re-election, after he famously turned around the challenge by saying, “I am not going to exploit for political purposes, my opponent’s youth and inexperience.” If you’re much younger than the team members you’re supervising, be prepared to feel some heat. “They’ll seem nice and friendly, but they’re totally judging you,” remembers Gluckow, who was in the situation of supervising much older sales reps. You don’t have to form deep personal friendships with your team members. You just need to get them to do their best. To earn their respect, and cooperation, Gluckow quizzed her team members on what mattered to them about the job. Once she tapped into their emotional connection to the job, it was easier to convince them to work with her and make quota.

Make a List

Most sales managers have been reps. They’ve suffered under managers who were rude. Or, they’ve put up with constantly being handed the worst assignments. Or, they’ve had to figure out how to succeed on their own, because their manager couldn’t be bothered training them. You don’t have to be that kind of manager. Gluckow made a list when she first started managing people. She wrote down the traits of the best managers she had and made sure she emulated them.

If you want to start your management career on the right path, consider doing the same.

Categories
Best Practices Entrepreneurship Human Resources Investing Management Marketing Negotiations Sales Women In Business

Aha – What Just Happened?

“Never let thoughts lazily reside in your imagination. Some seek life to serve you.” -Greg Williams, The Master Negotiator & Body Language Expert 

Do you take note of what’s occurring when you’re in different environments? If you don’t, you’re missing aha moments. Aha moments occur when your paradigm shifts about a perspective. That paradigm shift can lead to greater understandings about how you perceive your environments. Some aha moments are truly life-changing.

Aha – Don’t focus on ‘too’ easy or ‘too’ difficult. Assess the degree of difficulty associated with any task you contemplate, but don’t be over obsessive. If you think a task is too easy, you might put off addressing it because you think it will only take a short amount of time to complete. If you think it’ll be too difficult you might put it off altogether.

Aha – You don’t know what you don’t know. When making decisions, consider what you might not know that could add value to your thoughts. If the possibility of what you don’t know is overwhelming, delay your decision, continue thinking.

Aha – Everyone has the same amount of time and yet some are more successful than others. The account for their success lies in the way they utilize time. There are 1440 minutes in a day. To become more successful in life, don’t ‘kill’ time; use it to improve yourself. Make the most of the time you have.

The moment you embrace aha moments as enhancers in life, you will begin to elevate your life … and everything will be right with the world.

What does this have to do with negotiations?

When negotiating, what do you hear? What do you see? Does your periscope seek aha moments? There’s hidden value in such moments. You’ll only experience them if you’re watchful. Here’s how you can become more attuned to the possibility of aha moments.

Keep an open mind.

Be receptive to ideas, suggestions, and offers that initially may not be appealing. By considering the offer from other perspectives, you may experience that aha moment that leads to a greater outcome.

What’s that background noise?

Background noise can be a metaphor for anything that alters your perception. In some cases, negotiators have manipulated their environment by lacing it with different aromas. The opposing negotiator was not mindful of the fact that the maneuver was stimulating him. Had he realized, he may have recognized the aha that was captivating his senses.

Change environments. 

Changing environments opens the doorway to aha moments. When you feel stumped in a negotiation, call a timeout. Take a break to alter the way you’re thinking.

In your next negotiation, take note of what you’re not paying attention to. Ask yourself why your new thought had not captured your attention before. What you’ll experience is another way to uncover aha moments.

Thank you Mitchell Levy, The AHA Guy at AHAthat and TEDx Speaker

– Watch Mitchell’s TED talk: BEing Seen and BEing Heard as a Thought Leader

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 “Negotiation Tip of the Week” and the “Sunday Negotiation Insight” click here http://www.themasternegotiator.com/greg-williams/

#Reflection #AhaMoments #Mind #Brain #Thinking #Success #Emotion #Business #Progress #SmallBusiness #Negotiation #NegotiatingWithABully #Power #Perception #emotionalcontrol #relationships #liars #Mask #HowToNegotiateBetter #CSuite #TheMasterNegotiator #ControlEmotions

Categories
Growth Management Personal Development

6 Tips to Overcome Executive Overwhelm-itus

There is too much to do. There is not enough time to get it done. We’ve all been there.

As an executive leader, senior level executive, CEO, or growing business professional, your biggest, hairiest, most important roles are overseeing employees and managing the flow of work. If you’re suffering from overwhelm-itus or are prone to frequent bouts of this nasty syndrome, take heart, as you are not alone. As someone who goes through seasons of this, I can tell you that understanding overwhelm is the first step.

Try these 6 Tips to Overcome Executive Overwhelm-itus:

 

1. Get out of reactive mode. It’s an easy place to hang out, but it will kill you. If you’re constantly reacting to what comes your way, you’re just like a pinball, bouncing from one thing to another. Problem is, you never make headway in any one area and wind up being even more stressed out and, well, more overwhelmed. Take a few minutes, step back, and look at the big picture.

2. Prioritize. The word priority originally meant the very first or prior thing. Note that it was singular. Only much later did we try to make the term plural. In reality, it is impossible to have multiple first things. Let’s go back to the original meaning and intent of the word. While you’re taking that step back, think about what is truly THE most important thing that you need to do right now. Do it. Lather, rinse, repeat.

3. Delegate. In order to do this effectively, you need to get over yourself. Accept that a.) You can’t do it all, and b.) Someone may actually be able to do it better than you. (Gasp!) Analyze the task and the team members you have around you who might be able to help. Match the task to the person, give very explicit instructions and even training if necessary, and let them roll with it. Monitor, follow up, and give feedback. Bam! That’s my delegating workshop encapsulated in a couple of sentences, but it’s really not as difficult as you’re making it out to be.

4. Dump it. I’m sure you’d love to take your whole to-do list and just dump it, but that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about using real “strategery” here, people. While you’re applying tip #1 above, really take a look at what you’re saying you’ve just got to do. Do you really gotta do ALL of those things? Could you, mayhaps, say buh-bye to any of those tasks? Analyze the consequences of dumping the least important tasks and also consider the ROI of completing those tasks. If the consequences are… inconsequential, and the ROI is minimal, maybe you should consider letting it go. Or if you can’t delegate it and it simply MUST be done, you could consider applying tip #5.

5. Delay it. I am making a case here for intentional procrastination. Yep. You heard me right. Under SOME conditions in the workplace the right decision is to simply delay dealing with a task. Hit the “delay button” when you need more information or expertise from someone who currently has no access to the outside world, or when you need approval from someone in a higher pay grade than yours. Use this technique on a very limited basis, otherwise you’ll find yourself in full blown procrastination mode. Not. A. Good. Thing.

6. Breathe. A necessity. Reframe how you’re thinking about the situation and remember that when your brain perceives something as a problem, it actually releases hormones that cause you more stress. “This is not a problem, it’s an opportunity.” Keep repeating that as you practice deep breathing exercises and apply the previous five techniques.

We teach best what we most need to learn.

There’s a good bit of wisdom in that quote. Lest you think that I’ve conquered overwhelm, I confess that I still have to deal with it from time to time. Hopefully, these business and stress management tips will help you to overcome overwhelm so that you can be the leader you were meant to be.

CHIME IN:

  • How do you deal with that feeling of too much to do and not enough time to do it?
  • What are some tips that you’ve found helpful for overcoming overwhelm?
  • Please leave a comment below and share your insights with our community.

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.

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.”

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Four Signs You’re Sabotaging Your Team (and How to Stop)

Managing for Maximum Performance

8 of the Best Kept Leadership Communication Secrets

 

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