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Day: October 17, 2019

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Growth Personal Development

Why Training is a “Must Have,” not a “Nice to Have”

Most business leaders know that effective training builds more consistent performance among employees, improves customer service, reduces the amount of time that managers spend training new employees, and provides other benefits that impact the bottom line.

But do those same businesspeople also understand just how much a company’s overall profitability will grow when a comprehensive program of training is put into action? In many cases, they don’t. Here’s a case study that gives some food for thought for companies that would like to quickly realize significant improvements in their bottom line.

Case Study: A Restaurant Chain You Know

Several years ago, a major national restaurant chain hired Tortal Training to perform a comprehensive analysis of their training programs for new hires and front-line employees. Before working with Tortal, most training there was being delivered by restaurant managers who had to take time away from their other duties to conduct one-on-one training or run training classes.

Tortal designed and implemented a comprehensive eLearning program. One year after the program began, profits had already increased in dramatic ways:

  • At restaurants where 80% of employees had completed the eLearning training, overall business had increased by 4%.
  • At restaurants where 50% or fewer of the employees had completed the training, business had increased too, but by 1.4%.

Now let’s crunch some numbers. Each of those restaurants does about $2 million of business every year. So using that as a baseline, we see that restaurants that had generated 4% more business had made $16,000 more in just one year. In contrast, the restaurants that had achieved 1.4% growth had generated $2,800 in more business.

If you roll out those numbers further, you will see that over a five-year period, the restaurants that trained 80% of their employees would see an increase of $80,000 in new business, compared to $14,000 in companies that had trained 50% of their workers. But in reality, the revised training would generate even a bigger ROI, because:

  • Business growth is cumulative. Even if a business grows at a rate of 4% every year, that percentage is built on a bigger profit base. So even if the growth rate holds steady, the number of new dollars earned each year will increase.
  • More efficient operations lead to greater profits and growth.In a restaurant setting, managers who are freed from training responsibilities can invest more of their time running their restaurants. The same principle applies in most businesses. And as we know, better-trained employees are more efficient, sell more, and generate increased profits.
  • Retention rates among well-trained employees have been proven to be higher than for employees who are not well-trained.And as every company executive knows, the cost of hiring and training new employees is very high.

Training is a “Must Have,” not a “Nice to Have”

How much would your company’s profits increase if you were able to increase your annual business by 2%, 4%, 6% or more, and then keep building on those gains? If you don’t crunch the numbers, you could underestimate just how big the impact will be on your bottom line. But after you take out a pencil and paper and add things up, you will see that better training has the power to dramatically increase profits in both the short and long term.

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Best Practices Growth Personal Development

Six Practices Successful Leaders Admire in Their Leaders

My research conducted over a two-year period revealed six practices that separate the best leaders from the rest.

I’ve been in leadership roles for over two decades and read hundreds of leadership and business books.  I learned from all the books and all my experiences.  Yet I still wanted to know more about leadership from the “real world” experiences of successful leaders.  Several years ago, I did exactly that by interviewing about eighty successful, high-level leaders from many industries.  The key question that kicked off each interview was this:  “In your experience, what have you seen that separated the best leaders from the rest?”  These were fascinating conversations.  These leaders talked with clarity and conviction about the leaders they respected the most, and why they stood out.  After analyzing the transcripts from these interviews, six clear themes emerged as the practices that “separated the best leaders from the rest.”  Following is a summary of those leadership practices.

Build Trust

Build trust is listed first because it is first.  As many of these leaders explained, without trust, the rest of it doesn’t matter.  People don’t follow leaders they don’t trust.  Trust is built over time and can be lost in a moment.  In the workshops that I lead, I always ask the group, “Is it an overstatement to say that in leadership and life, trust is everything?”  The answers from the group is always a resounding NO.  It is not an overstatement.  Trust is everything.  Trust is the glue that holds all relationships together, personal and business.  According to these leaders, businesses with high-trust cultures outperform business with low-trust cultures all day long; definitely true in my experience.  The best leaders build trust.

Serve Others

 This is the age-old practice of servant leadership.  It is not as much of a skill as it is a mindset.  The essence of this practice is setting people up for success with training, coaching, supporting and providing all the tools required to be successful.  The mistaken idea about servant leadership is that it is “soft.”  Servant leadership practiced properly is a coin with two sides: support and accountability.  One of the interviewees said it well:  “This is what separates bosses from leaders.”  Many of these leaders said what legendary CEO Jack Welch was quoted to say, “Leadership is not about you.  It is about your people.”  Most of us have worked for both; leaders that get it and self-serving bosses that don’t.  Admired leaders get it.

Create Clarity

The purpose of clarity is keeping people on the same page, pulling in the same direction, toward goals that matter.  As these leaders told me, easy concept, hard to do.  Think about the barriers to everyone being on the same page.  People in different locations.  The crush of emails, texts, meetings, phone calls, initiatives and changing priorities all competing for attention.  There may be few things more important to leadership than creating clarity on many levels.  Think about a clarity ladder starting at the top and working your way down.   Vision, purpose, strategy, company goals and initiatives, projects, departmental goals and initiatives, and individual responsibilities and goals.  It is a lot to clarify.  And yet, having everyone on the same page, pulling together is a tremendous competitive advantage.  Strategy can fail in execution without clarity.  Change initiatives that lack clarity stand little chance.  Individuals at any level who lack clarity about their role and expectations will struggle.  One of the leaders made a great point.  “Clarity is everyone’s job; to create it and seek it out.”

Work with Purpose and Passion

I read a story many years ago about when U.S. President Kennedy was touring NASA in the early sixties.  As he was meeting people, he asked a gentleman who was a custodian, “what do you do here at NASA?”  The custodian’s proud response was, “Mr. President, I am helping put a man on the moon.”

I love that story.  It is about someone who understood that his job contributed to a noble purpose.  A mission larger than himself.  So it is with the best leaders.  They work with a passion that comes from a sense of purpose.  A purpose that matters.  As leaders, they convey that noble purpose to their teams through their words and actions in a way that unifies and energizes people.  One of my favorite interviews with these leaders was a woman who started a catalog business from nothing and then transformed it into a successful specialty retail chain that is still growing.  When I asked her what the secret sauce was that fueled their success, she simply stated, “Passion.  I have a passion for this business, and I hire people who share my passion.”

Fully Engage People

According to many of these leaders, the antidote to low levels of employee engagement we see in survey after survey is leadership.  One leader explained, “Our approach to fully engaging people is to consider that everyone brings a heart, a mind, and a skillset with them to the job.”  When it comes to engaging people, one size does not fit all.  As leaders, an important way to engage the heart is through recognition and feedback.  The more we appreciate the value people bring to the job, the more valued they feel, and the more value they bring.  Engaging the mind is about tapping into the knowledge and ideas people have – and listening.  We best engage people’s skillset by putting them in roles that fit their natural abilities.  Companies with higher levels of engagement have a distinct advantage over their competitors.

Act with Courage

“Leadership is not for the faint of heart,” proclaimed many of these leaders.  “It requires backbone.” When I conduct leadership workshops, I ask these two questions.   First, what situations in your leadership roles require courage?  The answers most cited include having tough conversations, holding people accountable, disagreeing with higher-level leaders, making tough decisions, letting someone go and owning mistakes.  Most of us can cite examples of when we didn’t act with courage and the painful consequences of not acting.   The second question is “Is courage hardwired or developed.?”  What’s your answer?

Applying the Practices

Once I documented the themes from these interviews, I set out to validate them in my own experience.  As the head of Human Resources for a global company, I had a lot of leadership experience but realized I still had much to learn.  While I had some strengths in each of these practices, I realized I could improve in every one of them.  So, I set out to do so.  Each week for about a year or so, I set a goal to focus on one of these practices on the job.  I let what was happening on the job guide that I worked on each week.  After about a year of this practice, I realized that my leadership skills developed more in that year than in the previous ten or so.  The key was focusing on developing one of these best practices a week at a time and understanding the synergy between these practices.  They reinforce each other.  Building trust allowed me to act with courage.  Serving others made it much easier to fully engage people.

Once I felt confident about the authenticity of these practices, I developed a workshop from these practices titled “Diamond Quality Leadership.” I delivered it to every manager at every level all over this global enterprise.  The CEO called this leadership model “The Bible” for how we practice leadership.  Maybe a stretch, but it provided a solid foundation for leadership development.

Over time, three other benefits became apparent.  First, a consistent approach to leadership strengthened an already healthy culture.  Second, it provided a solid platform for change.  Change initiatives have a much greater chance to be successful in a high trust culture, and little chance in a low trust culture.  Finally, the Millennial generation is becoming an increasingly larger percentage of our workforce.  They want better bosses, clearer career paths and healthy cultures. With the Great Resignation, companies with skilled managers and healthy cultures have a tremendous advantage in the competition for talent.

About the Author

Dr. Mark Hinderliter works with clients to align  people strategy with business strategy. His experience as a Senior Vice President for a billion-dollar global enterprise along with a PhD in Organization and Management are a unique fusion of real-world experience and academic credentials.

Mark is a Veteran-owned Business Owner and a Certified Partner with The Predictive Index, a Talent Optimization firm providing solutions for aligning people strategies and business strategies.

Mark’s LinkedIn profile is https://www.linkedin.com/in/markhinderliter/

Categories
Best Practices Investing Marketing Personal Development Sales

“Sales Isn’t Brain Surgery”…Or Is It?

While a sales career doesn’t require the extensive education and licensing as a surgical career, a great sales professional shares some similar traits.

My wife is a surgeon…she performs advanced procedures through tiny incisions, accomplishing radical changes in her patients’ bodies and lives through tiny keyhole-sized openings.  I’m in awe of what she can do, and its impact.  I’m crazy proud of her and what she does and try every day to rise to her elite level in my very different field.

A truly great – buyer-focused — sales professional will find several similarities.  Top tier salespeople actually perform non-contact brain surgery. mandate

Big Impacts Through a Narrow Field of View

While I don’t save lives for a living, what I do is still pretty cool. I am an expert on customer value…something that exists only inside the customer; specifically, in a customer/client’s mind. I help salespeople open their clients’ minds to previously unconsidered – yet strongly appreciated — outcomes.

Like a minimally-invasive surgeon operating through a ‘scope, salespeople only have a tunnel-vision view into what’s going on in a customer’s mind.  My specialty is teaching sales professionals how to affect customer’s minds, businesses, and lives through that small window between seller and customer’s mind.

The Role of Generalist Expertise and Acumen

Surgeon and sales consultants are both more effective when we are genuine experts in the whole patient/client.  One of us learned anatomy, biochemistry, and physiology to help understand what a patient’s symptoms and labs really mean. The other of us learned economics, earned a top business degree, has managed a P&L, and grown successful ground-breaking businesses…and has been involved in failure or two. My value to my clients is the ability to interpret my clients’ symptoms through a deep/wide business acumen.

Likewise, customer-centric selling requires that sellers provide valued consultant-like insights for their prospects and customers.  A salesperson can’t provide insight/perspective into something they don’t understand.  I’m passionate about providing sales forces next-level business acumen, so they can position themselves ahead of their competitors.

Domain Expertise and Situational Mastery

My wife is an expert in one area of the body, and various ways to fix things when that part of the body is injured or diseased.  When she’s operating through a ‘scope, she knows exactly what all that confusing jumble of stuff is, where she needs to cut, and what she needs to preserve.  She knows what’s coming next, and what lies beneath the part she’s working on, just out of sight.  When things don’t look “textbook”, she’s either seen that anomaly before or can confidently deal with it.  Each operation is individualized to the patient, not the other way around.

I do the same thing, with organizations, not organisms.

Value-focused organizations put their salespeople in a position to either be expert, to anticipate, to accommodate, and/or to seamlessly call in needed expertise as-needed, when-needed.  Facilitating a buying process the customer is usually inexperienced in, helping them through the tough parts by virtue of the sales person’s experience in that domain.

Another thing:  great salespeople don’t blindly shove canned (even brilliantly persona-tailored, technologically sharpened) value messages into every patient’s — oops, prospect’s — brain.  I teach clients to apply value messages surgically:  confirming first whether application caused any value to form between the prospect’s ears, and then what kind and how much.

Closing is Only the End of the Beginning. Focus on Outcomes

My wife’s complication rates and patient outcomes are far superior to peer and industry averages.  This isn’t just because of her technique in the OR, but about her mastery of patient counseling, recovery, and post-op care, and how she develops an exceptionally de-siloed care pathway…focused on patient success.  She knows what world-class looks like and helps those around the patient deliver the care that ensures great outcomes.

I help my clients think not just until the close, but to plan seamlessly to customer success.  I harp on the mantra that there is no after-sale care, but between-sales care.

Customer-focused sellers know that signing the contract is the moment when the pressure to perform starts for your customer. There are several good ways to handle the transition and a bunch of wrong ones. If your business involves repeat-, cross-, or upselling, a world-class approach to implementation and outcome assurance is your only option.

Passion for the Profession

I don’t get called in for emergency life-saving surgery in the middle of the night, but we both love what we do for our respective patients/clients.

I want my clients to learn to walk, then run without me over their shoulder. This doesn’t happen by pushing them out on their own too soon…but it also means aggressive support in the early going so that they leave the hospital, umm…engagement, prepared for their own development.

Unlike a surgeon like my wife, my ideal client is one who is doing OK, but knows they could be doing better.  Are you and your salespeople treating opportunities like everyday complex selling situations, when you know in your heart that what you sell could be elevated to mission-critical for your customers?  Perhaps we need to set a time for a consultation.

To Your Success!

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

“Avoid Danger In Negotiations – How To Control Conversations Better” – Negotiation Tip of the Week

 

“To avoid danger, control the conversations that lead to it. And, to do that, know how to control conversations.” -Greg Williams, The Master Negotiator & Body Language Expert (Click to Tweet)

 

 

Click here to get the book!

“Avoid Danger In Negotiations – How To Control Conversations Better”

 

Two agents were working undercover as they discussed an update with their informant. They were seated in a recessed area in an attempt to keep their conversation private and to avoid danger. They wanted to control the environment as much as possible. Suddenly, a panhandler walked over and aggressively began to ask for money. One agent said pleasantly, no. But the person persisted by asking, why not? The agent said, no, again. Still, the person continued their plea for money. Finally, the agent growled as he said in a loud voice, I said no! Stunned, the beggar turned and quickly walked away.

Potential danger always surrounds you, even during negotiations (you’re always negotiating). In some cases, you avoid it by staying outside of its bounds. At other times, you prevent it by the way you control conversations in an environment.

When the agents turned their attention back to their update, the informant asked, did you think that person was dangerous? The agent said, no. That beggar didn’t accept my answer the first few times. So, I had to alter the delivery of my words. By changing the tone of my reply and sounding more hostile, the panhandler sensed my, no, response as being more definitive. That’s why he walked away at that point.

Consider the following techniques to increase your control as you negotiate with those that might attempt to be defiant or with those that you’d like to control better.

 

Block and Bridge

Block and bridge is one way to alter the flow of a conversation. You’d implement its use as a conversation began to head in an unwanted direction – one that you feared would cause you to lose control of the discussion or interaction. You might also consider employing it when you wanted to enhance the flow of a conversation.

To invoke its use, when someone began making statements that you disagreed with, or citing accounts not aligned with where you wanted to take the conversation, block their comments. As an example, you can say, you have a point (block), and the outcome was less than expected (bridge). I suggest we take the following approach. It’s known to have better results.

The manner you block someone’s comments depends on the severity of the situation. If it’s one that might escalate to a high degree of irritation, you might consider blocking the other person’s statements with a harsh tone and words. If that’s not required, consider being milder in your intonation and demeanor.

 

Answering Questions With Questions

Answering questions with questions is an excellent way to gather more information than you give. It also allows you to control a conversation. Because the person asking questions is controlling the flow of the discussion. And that occurs as long as the other party is answering questions.

To implement this strategy, ask a question in response to one that’s asked of you. Do this instead of answering the initial query. Thus, instead of providing an answer to that question, you’d respond with one of your own.

As an example, if someone says, do I have to take this course of action? Your response might be, what do you think will happen if you don’t take this course of action? You’ve not answered the question. And if you get a response, you’ve gained more insight into the individual’s thoughts. Along with a possible solution to a situation if you choose to implement that person’s response.

 

Listening To What’s Not Said

Many people consider themselves good communicators because they pay attention to what someone says. In reality, you can be a better communicator and control conversations better by observing what’s someone doesn’t say.

As an example, if someone said, I didn’t do what you said I did. You might consider a person’s answer to mean, I didn’t do what you said I did. Yes, I did it, but not the way you stated it.

By listening for what’s not said, and the response of how something’s said, you’ll gain better insight and control of someone’s statements. You’ll also know more about how that person is communicating. And that will be worth its weight in gold.

 

Reflection  

In every environment, and every negotiation you’re in, think about how you’ll control that environment. In particular, consider how you’ll avoid dangerous situations, what form of control you’ll use, and where that might take you in your encounter. Because the better you control conversations, the more power and control you’ll have in every negotiation and situation that you’re in … and everything will be right with the world.

 

Remember, you’re always negotiating!

 

Listen to Greg’s podcast at https://anchor.fm/themasternegotiator

 

After reading this article, what are you thinking? I’d 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/

 

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Best Practices Growth Industries Management Personal Development Technology

Understanding Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Deep Learning

Technological change is the only constant in today’s business world, disrupting everything from large organizations to small start-ups. Disruption affects everyone, but will you be the disruptor or the disrupted? You must pay close attention to the Hard Trends shaping the future of your industry, your business, and the outside world to identify opportunities used to innovate and grow rapidly, additionally using those Hard Trends to solve any problems your organization and customers might have before they occur.

The Power of Shared Understandings and Definitions

The shared definition and understanding of the words we use is an issue in business. While several companies are on course to use artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and deep learning (DL), others hardly understand the fundamental differences between these powerful technologies. How can one be successful, much less disruptive, when they themselves do not differentiate between AI, ML, and DL?

Recently, technology company Sage conducted surveys pertaining to AI and individuals’ understanding of it. Unfortunately, 43% of respondents in the US and 47% of respondents in the UK indicated they had no idea what AI is capable of in business.

In addition to under-education, many vendors rush different AI solutions to market before the ultimate decision-makers and buyers understand what they need or what the technology could actually do for their companies, causing confusion both internally and externally. Add in those other AI subcategories, ML and DL, and the convolution furthers.

While advising leaders of different backgrounds around the world, I found that we all have different definitions of and understandings about AI and its counterparts. For example, I was invited to participate in a high-level strategy meeting regarding AI in Washington, DC, among experts from the Department of Defense, DARPA, and several major defense contractors.

Before the meeting began, I heard discussions regarding what some were doing with deep learning, and others were talking about the results they received from machine learning. Wondering if we all mutually understood the discussion at hand, I asked one of the experts to give their definition of machine learning, asking another thereafter. By the third person, it was clear we all had different definitions for the same thing.

A similar result occurred when I asked for the definition of deep learning, and, to my surprise, even the definition of artificial intelligence varied amongst the participants.

If we are sharing how we apply a technology but with different definitions and understandings of what it actually is, we are not effectively communicating or collaborating. In actuality, we create more problems going forward. Therefore, in my example, we spent the next part of the meeting crafting definitions that everyone agreed on.

What Exactly Is AI ∙ Machine Learning ∙ Deep Learning

Artificial intelligence applies to computing systems designed to perform tasks usually reserved for human intelligence using logic, if-then rules, and decision trees. AI recognizes patterns from vast amounts of quality data providing insights, predicting outcomes, and making complex decisions.

Machine learning is a subset of AI that utilizes advanced statistical techniques to enable computing systems to improve at tasks with experience over time. Chatbots like Amazon’s Alexa and Apple’s Siri improve every year thanks to constant use by consumers coupled with the machine learning that takes place in the background.

Deep learning is a subset of machine learning that uses advanced algorithms to enable an AI system to train itself to perform tasks by exposing multilayered neural networks to vast amounts of data. It then uses what it learns to recognize new patterns contained in the data. Learning can be human-supervised learning, unsupervised learning, and/or reinforcement learning like Google used with DeepMind to learn how to beat humans at the game Go.

Autonomous computing uses advanced AI tools like deep learning to enable systems to be self-governing and capable of acting according to situational data without human command. AI autonomy includes perception, high-speed analytics, machine-to-machine communications, and movement. Autonomous vehicles use these features to pilot a vehicle without a human driver.

Augmented thinking: As AI becomes more integrated into objects, processes, products, and services, humans will augment their personal problem-solving and decision-making abilities with the insights AI provides.

It is critical for leaders and employees alike to develop a firm understanding of the fundamental differences between AI, ML, and DL. The increasing levels of business insights that can be gained from a shared understanding of AI is evident when understanding exactly how these ever-growing, disruptive technologies can be harnessed by your organization.

It is imperative for organizations and leaders to go beyond reacting quickly. Becoming anticipatory by paying attention to the Hard Trends that will happen and solving problems before they occur is imperative. Understanding AI technologies and how they build upon one another is a great start, helping your organization move swiftly into the future.