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Category: Personal Development

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Best Practices Growth Leadership Personal Development

10 Simple Ways to Improve Your People Skills

Much of your success in life hinges on your ability to understand and interact with people. Use these tips to up your people-skills game.

No matter what new technologies and systems you put in place to grow your business, how to work with people will always matter most. To develop natural charm and innate people skills requires effort along with trial and error. Here are ten simple ways to help improve your natural charm and create real connections to build more powerful people skills:

1. Talk to others about what they want to hear

People often hear only what they want or need. The things potential customers want to hear most are how you can serve their goals, interests, ideas, experiences and aspirations. Talk about that, and you’ll get and hold their attention without difficulty.

2. Take a training course

Invest in learning how to communicate more effectively. This will pay off in every aspect of your business and your personal life. The highest-paid and

most powerful people on the planet are all master communicators who have learned how to take control of even the most challenging situations, understand the art of persuasion, and know how to recognize and use persuasive strategies. Good communication leads to success!

3. Show appreciation

Make it a habit to thank others for everything they do to support you. A simple “thank you” makes others feel appreciated. You benefit in return by having good feelings about making others feel good. And you also benefit by making others think better of you, making them want to do more good things for you in return. The more you genuinely show others you care, the easier it will be to make a good impression on them.

4. Give genuine, sincere compliments

When you compliment someone about a trait, skill, accomplishment, or possession, it gives them feelings of recognition and value. The more you pay close attention to customers, the more important they feel. When you pay compliments often, even on small things, it helps build rapport.

5. Act honorably and treat others with respect

Always do the right thing, even when no one’s watching. That’s how you build a positive business reputation. Reputation isn’t purchased; it’s earned. We’ve all heard this: “Nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care.” This is the Golden Rule in business that should govern your attitudes, thoughts, words, and actions.

6. Identify personal core values

Clarifying your core values highlights what you stand for. Your core values also represent your uniqueness and personal style. They guide your behavior and provide you with a personal code of conduct. When you honor your core values consistently, you experience fulfillment in every part of life. And when you don’t, you become incongruent in your business practices. For example, if one of your core values is to offer high- quality customer service, yet your employees don’t show customers the respect they deserve, that’s a problem because you’re working outside your core business values. To turn it around, you must empower your team to match every area of your core values, including valuing customers.

7. Commit to good business ethics

Practicing good business ethics should go without saying. So why are there still so many unethical

businesspeople out there? Ethics are your moral judgment about what’s right and what’s wrong. Good ethics simply make good business sense!
Success comes easily when you act with honesty and integrity at all times. Good ethics require dealing honestly in your business, backing up your products and services, and treating everyone fairly. A lack of business ethics endangers your future success and jeopardizes your reputation. If you believe that, like karma, what goes around comes around, always practice good ethics.

8. Remain true to your authentic self

Remaining true to your beliefs helps you sincerely connect to others. Pretending to be something you’re not makes doing business hard. You can’t manipulate your personality to seek approval or avoid disapproval. Authenticity isn’t defined by your title, position, or role. It’s all about being true to your heart and your destiny. This requires you to trust yourself, embrace your uniqueness, share your gifts, and learn to be present in the moment.

For example, one of the greatest compliments I get from audience members after giving a speech is, “You’re so real and authentic. I felt like you were speaking directly to me.” Hearing this always warms

my heart. It’s my goal to always be in the moment, make a personal connection (no matter how large the audience is), and share my knowledge with the audience. It’s about connecting your head and heart to make an impact.

9. Build confidence to make stronger connections

Being confident earns you the respect of others. Confidence shows in many ways, including your mannerisms, appearance, and the way you talk, walk, and listen to people. To become more confident, you must respect and accept yourself as you are right now. You are unique in your own way. Accepting yourself and your flaws without any inner conflict helps build confidence.

Take responsibility for your success by having confidence, which is independent of all external factors, especially the things beyond your control. Confident people talk assertively, strike an assured pose, and use a certain tone of voice. Confidence allows you to be tough in business, but tough doesn’t mean you can’t still be friendly and approachable. Having true confidence is about being daringly honest and truthful at all times.

10. Tackle problems with a positive mental attitude
Positive thinking allows you to try to solve problems through constructive action. A positive mental attitude lets you build strengths and overcome weaknesses. It helps you realize you’re born for greatness because within you is the power to make any dream a reality.

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Best Practices Investing Personal Development Sales

Your 2019 Resolution: Control the Suck of Discounting Expense

There is almost nothing you can do for your business with a higher financial payback than getting your arms around your discounting practices. I want you to make a New Year’s resolution to put rigor and discipline around your discounting (some call it “pricing exceptions”) policy and processes.

Why is this so important for your business?  Simple math.  When you sell your product or service to a customer, your costs to fulfill your part of the deal are the same—regardless of whether you discounted or not.

Discounting changes only two lines on your P&L statement: the top line and the bottom line.

When you grant a discount, every dollar you surrendered comes off of your bottom line, and goes to the customer’s.

For an operating business, your profits are made at the top line.  A pricing and/or discounting decision is what drives profits.  Once you see a number on the bottom line, it’s too late to do anything about it.  Discount expense sucks the life out of companies.

Resolution Part #1. Take Stock of Your Current Discounting Practices.

I am thrilled to help my readers analyze where their discount dollars go and their system for allocating those dollars. Let’s examine how you make discounting decisions together.  If you’d like to prepare, or go through the exercise on your own.  Some of the questions we’ll go through:

How many discount dollars do you spend per year?

  • Formal, through an exception process?
  • Invisible, through salesperson autonomy?
  • Does everyone in your company know that discount dollars=profit dollars? Do they act like it?

What is your price exception/discount process now?

  • What are the steps?
  • Who are the players?
  • What information/documentation is used?
  • How is the discount justified?
    • Is customer value measured/characterized? How?
  • Do you always know what the customer thinks of yours andthe competitor’s value (or just their price)?
  • How consistently do your people follow your process?
  • Have you (or can we) analyze how discount dollars are distributed? Are there concentrations by territory/salesperson, region, customer, industry, time of year?  Can we explain any apparent anomalies?
  • What do we get in exchange for price concessions?Are there any salesperson/regional/market trends in that data?

What These Questions Uncover.

The first thing we’ll discover is how well you track discount dollars. Since every one of these dollars is also a profit dollar, you need to know where every one goes. If you don’t know where your discount dollars go, your business is leaking profits.

The questions above help both of us understand how you make pricing and discounting decisions, where the discount dollars go, and if there are any suspicious trends.

Are my discount dollars being over-allocated toward:

  • The whiniest salespeople?
  • The favorite salespeople?
  • The whiniest customers?
  • A certain market?
  • At a certain time of the month/quarter/year?

That last one frustrates the heck out of me: I’ve held P&L responsibility, and have never felt that an unprofitable booking this month beats a profitable booking next month.  I’d feel that way even without the perversion of what month-end discounting teaches my customers.

I also want to explore the basis of discounting (whether/how much) decisions.  Squeaky wheel?  Best at gaming the system?  Price-based? Or…value based?

The Gold Standard of Discount Systems:  Customer Value Based.

99% of the time you hear “your price is too high”, what the person is really saying is either “your value is too low”, or “I’m inviting you to help me understand your value”.  I specialize in helping my clients have those discussions effectively. I can point you to a methodology which will steer those conversations toward value and away from price…and certainly away from unnecessary discounts.

If you have a solid methodology for understanding customer value, some great things happen to your discounting practices:

  • Discounting is purposeful. It no longer feels as random or arbitrary.
    • Your people will understand the system and feel more fairly treated
    • You might quiet the squeaky wheels; the people who scream the loudest for discounts.
  • You will be confident in your discounting decisions.
    • You’ll make better decisions about product enhancements, market entries, even market exits.
  • You will discount less and profit more.
  • You will produce more accurate forecasts. Knowing customer value is the same as knowing customer motivation. When you truly know value, you are intimately engaged with the customer’s innermost buying decision dynamics.

Resolution Part #2. Build A Value Based Pricing/Discounting System.

I can help you if you want.  Here are some options:

1. I’m feeling pretty good about the latest draft of my book on the subject.  If you’ll give me merciless feedback on it, I’ll send you a .pdf copy to review.  The book will guide you toward developing a better pricing/discounting system.

2. Let’s talk. Reach out at mark@boundyconsulting.com.  If you want to work toward a system together, prepare for our call by looking through the “take stock” questions above, and  prepare any questions for me.

Whatever you do, and however you choose to get help, please do it. The road to failure is paved with poorly justified discounting decisions.  I want you on a better path.

To your success!

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

Are You Being Manipulated?

“Manipulation is a means to an end. If you don’t like what may lie at that end, control the means.” -Greg Williams, The Master Negotiator & Body Language Expert

Everyone’s manipulated. Are you aware when it happens to you? If you know when it’s occurring, how does it feel? Sometimes, when people knowingly allow others to manipulate them, their mind becomes susceptible to being tranquil. Without knowing it, they become more vulnerable to manipulation. Are you aware when you’re in such a state?

“She said she was waiting for me. So, I sped up and a cop stopped me for speeding. When I arrived at the meeting location, I discovered she wasn’t there. She wanted me to think she’d arrived. I realized she’d manipulated me. The cost of that manipulation could have been a speeding ticket had the officer given me one; fortunately, he let me go with a warning.” Those were the solemn words of an account manager to his business associates about how he’d been manipulated.

Every day of your life, you’re manipulated. To control the degree that you’re manipulated, take note …

The degree of manipulation:

The more desperate someone becomes to reach a goal, the more irrational their efforts may appear to obtain it. Note the ratcheting degree of their efforts. Heightened attempts to manipulate you may occur during such times. If someone appears to border on irrationality, intensify your sense of awareness. It’s also the time that you might be most vulnerable to being manipulated, due to a proposal appearing too good to be true. Raise your guard higher and be mindful of your thought process during such times to ward off manipulative tactics.

Understand the intent of manipulation:

There are different forms of manipulation. Thus, the word ‘manipulate’ does not necessarily have to convey a negative sentiment. There are good forms of manipulation (e.g. keeping you from harm’s way). Thus, you should assess if the attempt to manipulate you is for your betterment or detriment.

If attempts to improve your plight are made through disguised means, you should be aware of such tactics even though they’re not as potentially damaging as those that might be applied for nefarious purposes. The point is, someone is still attempting to manipulate you, which means they’re trying to control you. For better or worse, you should always maintain control of yourself. Even if you wish to relinquish control, you’re the one in control of that decision.

The greater your understanding of someone’s manipulation intent, the more understanding you’ll possess about the efforts and where such is attempting to lead you. If you don’t wish to go there, don’t allow the manipulation to continue.

Someone attempts to manipulate you every day. You can control their efforts by controlling yourself. Once you do, you’ll exert greater control over your life … and everything will be right with the world.

What does this have to do with negotiations? 

Manipulation occurs in every negotiation. You and the opposing negotiator engage in it to alter the other’s perspective. The more insight you have about his goal for the negotiation and the strategies he might employ to obtain it, the greater insight you’ll have about the manipulative tactics he’ll employ to reach it. That will give you a mental form of protection, which should allow you to be more understanding of how to control his efforts. In so doing, keep your emotions in check. That’ll lead you to even greater control of the negotiation. To control your emotions, remember, you’re attempting to do the same thing to him that he’s attempting to do to you.

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/

#Manipulation #Success #Emotion #Business #Progress #SmallBusiness #Negotiation #NegotiatingWithABully #Power #Perception #emotionalcontrol #relationships #liars #HowToNegotiateBetter #CSuite #TheMasterNegotiator #ControlEmotions

 

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Entrepreneurship Leadership Personal Development

A Search for Consciousness in Business

That wave of pride you feel when crossing the finish line of a hard-trained-for marathon. The swooning epiphany that you’re in love while holding hands in Italy. The rush of excitement that hits when you walk into a concert to see your favorite band play for the first time.

The most beautiful “aha” moments of our personal lives are marked by consciousness—a state that taps into our very reason for being and allows us to experience the joy of living. For most of us, that feeling of being totally present and aware in our day-to-day professional lives is less common. It can be cultivated, however, and when consciousness is embraced in the place where you spend most of your waking hours, it will set your business apart from the masses.

Understanding Consciousness, and its Business Potential

According to Merriam-Webster, consciousness is “the quality or state of being aware especially of something within oneself.” Taken further, it can be likened to a state of awareness, which is the “knowledge or understanding that something is happening or exists.”

In my view, consciousness is the ability to take in every single sensation and feeling in the moment, while using those insights to bring about actions that drive results. Living consciously allows you to be aware of what is transpiring around and within you, creating possibilities of forward movement. However you define consciousness, it is fundamentally a personal and purpose-directed mindset.

In business, consciousness can be a game-changing approach. According to a study conducted by Imperative, “58 percent of companies with a clearly-articulated purpose achieved growth of 10 percent or more over the past three years. 85 percent of companies with clearly-articulated purpose showed some growth overall, while 42 percent of companies without it sowed negative growth.” It will probably come as no surprise to you that the discussion of consciousness in business is very uncommon.

Overcoming Misperceptions

In my 17 years working with thousands of people in the billion-dollar automotive industry, I never once heard a leader describe consciousness as a focal point. Why? For the simple reason that consciousness through purpose-driven effort is not an everyday conversation for the majority of profit-only focused companies.

While consciousness may be perceived as too touchy-feely, the reality is that automotive leaders are missing out on a huge opportunity to get more from—and give more to—millions of employees craving a new ethos in an industry riddled with historical guilt, mistrust and greed. Though these individuals joined the auto industry to create a life for their families, many are conflicted by the need to overcome a hundred-year-old mindset led by profit-driven treatment that taught customers how to block and tackle as soon as they walked in the door. I’ve learned from speaking with numerous employees who say their jobs make them sick or that their leaders do not care are hungry for a shift and desire this “mythical” purpose approach that stretches beyond profit.

Specifically, they are hungry for consciousness, and they are not alone. Industries across the world are experiencing what I call the need to Shift Awake.

The D(Evolution) of a Conscious-Less Corporate Culture

Nowhere is the need to shift toward consciousness more apparent than in an organization where the top priority is shareholder profitability. In many organizations, the ultimate goal is shareholder profitability which drives quarterly and annual targets, which drives department objectives and employee projects and responsibilities. In an effort to increase profitability, typically these targets are solely focused on cost-cutting measures or revenue-generating efforts. I’m sure many of you are nodding your head. These efforts, when running as planned and market demands are met – companies hit their targets, resulting in more money in the pockets of the shareholders and voila, the company is still in business. Yes, there are a variety of other scenarios that play out, but for the basis of my next example, let’s keep what I’m about to say pedestrian.

During these moments, when organizations are profitability-focused have you ever wondered what is happening to the employees at a deeper level of the business? What they typically hear is – more, more, more. Sell more. Cut more. Create more. Also, let’s add in – sleep less, care less, and work with less. At the sake of hitting their targets, there is less focus on keeping the employee engaged and more effort expended toward filling the pockets of those at the top.

This is one example of a conscious-less organization which is the basis for most of our free-enterprise corporations and the reason capitalism gets such a bad rap. The consequences of a conscious-less led company do not happen immediately, but quite the reverse. You will often see high profits, high productivity and market domination out of the gate. Their success overshadows any need to reevaluate the way business is done.

Due the pressure, it is only a matter of time that a fissure in the foundation will start. Silently and slowly it begins to erode the growth they’ve had for years. A company may see their turnover creep up, maybe it’s just in one department at a time, so the effects are not widely visible. Once employees become disengaged, their customers begin to feel it. A dip in customer loyalty happens and the company thinks it’s a one-off. Inevitably there is a downward spiral that occurs, and the company comes to a point where they need to evaluate.

In other words, sometimes attained targets and full pockets for the leaders at the top come at the expense of employee engagement, customer satisfaction and, ultimately, success.

This is where the shift happens…or it doesn’t. Either the company will continue to overwork their people, drive customers away and reduce product quality to make profit miraculously appear—or they will wake up and recognize that something has to change. Even if they do wake up, many companies don’t know where to start because the idea of leading in a different way is so foreign. As a result, not all companies in our capitalist society survive the need to Shift Awake.

The Case for Conscious Capitalism

Believe it or not, there are already companies thriving in a conscious state of mind with a purposeful business model that factors in all stakeholders in addition to profit. They have an ethos strategy that creates a feeling of belonging and empathy, considers all people involved and empowers them to grow and develop. It’s a strategy that will come full circle as they give back to the company and the world around it.

This is known as “conscious capitalism,” a term coined by Raj Sisodia and John Mackey that begins to explain what these companies are doing differently to drive results and keep their people happy. According to the two authors, “in business as in other aspects of life, being conscious means taking responsibility for all the consequences of our actions, not just the ones that reflect well on us. The wonderful thing about thinking in a conscious way about business is that it enables businesses to make decisions in such a way that they have positive impacts in multiple dimensions for all stakeholders. This is far more fulfilling than simply striving to create financial wealth for shareholders.”

It’s an approach that yields much more than just a good feeling. Many companies that operate under conscious capitalism—including Amazon, Patagonia and the Container Store—have experienced growth beyond their expectations. In fact, it’s been found that using a holistic viewpoint to guide direction and desired outcomes has enabled conscious companies to score big. A study called “Firms of Endearment”took a deep dive into understanding the qualitative and quantitative metrics that made up these renowned brands, and researchers found that conscious companies outperformed the S&P 500 by 14 to 1 and even outperformed the companies from Jim Collins classic’ “Good to Great” by 6 to 1.5.

Evidence in support of conscious capitalism continues to grow. In 2012, Motley Fool Founder David Gardner went out on a limb and selected a grouping of twelve conscious, purpose-driven businesses’ stocks. He then asked a group of 200 executives at a conference to watch and see if they outperformed their traditional, bottom-line driven competitors. He said, “Let’s watch these 12 stocks over the course of the next five to 10 years and see if these companies do a good job—not just of living up to what we expect from conscious companies, but of how they score for shareholders.”

Gardner hit it right on the money. Earlier this year, he reevaluated those same stocks and found, “If you take the stocks I picked and average them, the average stock is up 400 percent. The S&P 500, by direct comparison over the same period, is up 97 percent.”

What is it about conscious capitalism that led to their success? It’s the factoring in of all stakeholders involved—including shareholder interests as well as the interests of customers, employees, suppliers, the community and the environment. In his book, Start with Why, Simon Sinek says it very well. “Happy employees ensure happy customers. And happy customers ensure happy shareholders—in that order.”

Making the Shift

It’s clear that many companies still have this wrong—including many in the automotive industry.When discussing 2017 automotive trends, Price Waterhouse Coopers mentioned, “Over the last five years, the annual rates of return that the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average achieved for investors (including dividends) were 14.8 percent and 10.1 percent, respectively. In that period, average auto maker TSR was only 5.5 percent.”

If you were to take a guess on a scale of 1 (being the lowest) and 10 (being the highest), where would you rank the consciousness of the auto industry? I’ll go out on my own limb and say it is close to the bottom of the barrel—and the numbers demonstrate the industry’s contrast with the conscious companies evaluated above.

It is worth considering what the auto industry could look and feel like if it were to embrace conscious capitalism. From my insider perspective, I envision an industry elevated as a whole by countless beautiful “aha” moment occurring at headquarters, in offices, dealerships and showroom floors—all while producing enviable profits. I see an industry with the potential to give meaning to the millions of lives it touches.

Jacqueline Jasionowski is the founder of Shift Awake Group. Her “soul” goal is to share with the world how connecting with your purpose through a higher level of consciousness will both drive results and enable you to innovate along the way.

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Growth Leadership Personal Development

Attitude Is a Multiplier

If you say the word “attitude” to people in the training community, most of us will think about presenters who burst into a room and try to knock trainees over with high bursts of energy. That’s not a bad image. Energy is absolutely part of attitude. Yet attitude is a lot more too.  It is a force that multiplies the results of training, improves performance, and leads to greater success.

Attitude has been the motive force behind many kinds of people. Rosa Parks was a quiet woman, but she had the attitude to take on bigotry and hasten the end of segregation. Winston Churchill was not a showman who sought the spotlight, but he rose to the challenge of World War II and his “never, never, never give up” attitude led his country to victory. Stephen Hawking, with his physical limitations, is not equipped to bowl people over with high energy, but his great attitude has enabled him to lead a very full life and expand the horizons of physics and science.

And you and I can use attitude to multiply our effectiveness too, no matter our field of endeavor.

What Is Attitude?

Here’s an analogy that helps explain what attitude is.

Attitude is like STP, the popular oil additive. People who love STP say that when they add it to the oil in their cars, their engines run more smoothly, produce more horsepower, and deliver better gas mileage. Attitude is like that. You pour it into whatever you do, and performance improves.

Attitude is like an electric light bulb too. As soon as Edison began to sell electric light bulbs, people were able to read and learn into the evening hours, work longer days, and achieve logarithmically bigger things in their lives. Attitude also lights up the world and empowers people to achieve more than they ever thought possible.

How Can You Put the Power of Attitude to Work?

I am still working this out – it is a very big issue. But here are some observations from my own life in business that I know to be right:

A great attitude starts with great listening, because attitude flows from other people to you – and not the other way around. When you become immersed in other people’s ideas, needs, concerns and inspirations, your attitude soars, and people sense that.

Being open to new ideas is the cornerstone of a great attitude. I have noticed confusion in this area, because some people seem to think that attitude means having emphatic opinions and trying to convince other people that they are right. A great attitude, in contrast, means trying to discover where other people are right and honoring them for that.

People who inspire you can help you build a powerfully positive attitude. If you apply life lessons from people who had great attitudes, you will take on some aspects of their greatness. When you study exceptional people, they will always be at your side in a sense. They might be your parents or other family members, business leaders you admire, historical figures, your minister or imam or rabbi – or anyone else whose life inspires you.

A great attitude is something that gets things done in the real world, not just in theory. If you go into a room and charm people and then nothing changes after you are done talking, you are not really tapping the power of attitude. Attitude does not stop as soon as the words are said. If you want to tap its power, follow through and follow up and bring change to other people’s lives and to the world.

I Would Welcome Your Input

Attitude is a topic that runs through my new book, Ingaging Leadership. As I noted above, it is a topic that I continue to explore. I invite your comments and feedback so we can engage and ingage in this process together.

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Best Practices Growth Personal Development

Active Wording Attracts Active Readers

Passive sentence construction can drain the power and focus of your writing.

In general terms, passive voice means a combination of a verb with “was,” “is,” “were,” “will be,” or any other form of the verb, “to be.” The accompanying verb will usually end in “ed.”

Here is an example.

Passive: The first day of my new position will always be remembered by me with terror.

Active: I will always remember the first day of my new position with terror.

In this instance, be remembered and remembered are, respectively, the passive and active forms.

The meaning of this sentence has a lot of potential power. “Terror” activates strong emotion. However, “be remembered” distances the emotional impact. “Remember” in its active form makes it more immediate.

Sometimes Passive Voice is Appropriate

Writing has its rules, but none of them are ironclad.

The most common use of passive voice is in situations where either we don’t know or don’t care who caused a situation.

“In the resulting shootout, three people were killed.”

We don’t know who killed them, and to say, “In the resulting shootout, three people died” doesn’t specify the violent nature of their deaths.

“She was robbed.” Again, we don’t know who did it. Rewriting the sentence to say, “An unknown person robbed her” would subtract from the impact of the act. People might focus on wondering who this person was, but the important fact is that she was robbed.

“Her teeth were shaped like daggers.” We don’t care who shaped them, and we don’t want to meet her.

“The meat was overcooked, but we were hungry and ate it.” We don’t care who overcooked it. Hunger is the point of this sentence.

Why People Often Use the Passive Voice

People usually write technical or business pieces in passive voice. That, I suppose, gives them a distant and impersonal tone that someone decided long ago was appropriate to such writing.

Unless you are writing such a piece, you don’t want a distant and impersonal tone. You want to communicate with your reader. You want them to feel that you are writing for them. Active verb forms convey this.

Author Stephen King believes that passive form suggests a kind of timidity about direct assertion. He suggests that cautious, unassertive authors take refuge in the tone of technical writing.

If you come from a technical writing background, I recommend that you pay special attention to searching your writing for use of passive voice, as it will be automatic for you. You’ll see how much more alive your writing becomes with the increased use of active voice.

Authorities generally recommend that no more than ten percent of your verb constructions be passive. That doesn’t mean you need to eliminate this form entirely.

Use it deliberately to vary your sentence construction.

No rules in writing are ironclad. What matters is whether you’re breaking one out of ignorance or on purpose. In other words, know the rules and break them only when it improves your writing.

Pat Iyer is one of the founding members of the C-Suite Network Advisors. She is an editor, ghostwriter and online course creator. Connect with her on patiyer.com.

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Best Practices Culture Entrepreneurship Industries Management Personal Development Technology

Shaping the Future of A.I.

One of the biggest news subjects in the past few years has been artificial intelligence. We have read about how Google’s DeepMind beat the world’s best player at Go, which is thought of as the most complex game humans have created; witnessed how IBM’s Watson beat humans in a debate; and taken part in a wide-ranging discussion of how A.I. applications will replace most of today’s human jobs in the years ahead.

Way back in 1983, I identified A.I. as one of 20 exponential technologies that would increasingly drive economic growth for decades to come. Early rule-based A.I. applications were used by financial institutions for loan applications, but once the exponential growth of processing power reached an A.I. tipping point, and we all started using the Internet and social media, A.I. had enough power and data (the fuel of A.I.) to enable smartphones, chatbots, autonomous vehicles and far more.

As I advise the leadership of many leading companies, governments and institutions around the world, I have found we all have different definitions of and understandings about A.I., machine learning and other related topics. If we don’t have common definitions for and understanding of what we are talking about, it’s likely we will create an increasing number of problems going forward. With that in mind, I will try to add some clarity to this complex subject.

Artificial intelligence applies to computing systems designed to perform tasks usually reserved for human intelligence using logic, if-then rules, decision trees and machine learning to recognize patterns from vast amounts of data, provide insights, predict outcomes and make complex decisions. A.I. can be applied to pattern recognition, object classification, language translation, data translation, logistical modeling and predictive modeling, to name a few. It’s important to understand that all A.I. relies on vast amounts of quality data and advanced analytics technology. The quality of the data used will determine the reliability of the A.I. output.

Machine learning is a subset of A.I. that utilizes advanced statistical techniques to enable computing systems to improve at tasks with experience over time. Chatbots like Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri, or any of the others from companies like Google and Microsoft all get better every year thanks to all of the use we give them and the machine learning that takes place in the background.

Deep learning is a subset of machine learning that uses advanced algorithms to enable an A.I. system to train itself to perform tasks by exposing multi-layered neural networks to vast amounts of data, then using what has been learned 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 complex game Go. Reinforcement learning will drive some of the biggest breakthroughs.

Autonomous computing uses advanced A.I. tools such as deep learning to enable systems to be self-governing and capable of acting according to situational data without human command. A.I. autonomy includes perception, high-speed analytics, machine-to-machine communications and movement.  For example, autonomous vehicles use all of these in real time to successfully pilot a vehicle without a human driver.

Augmented thinking: Over the next five years and beyond, A.I. will become increasingly embedded at the chip level into objects, processes, products and services, and humans will augment their personal problem-solving and decision-making abilities with the insights A.I. provides to get to a better answer faster.

A.I. advances represent a Hard Trend that will happen and continue to unfold in the years ahead. The benefits of A.I. are too big to ignore and include:

  1. Increasing speed
  2. Increasing accuracy
  3. 24/7 functionality
  4. High economic benefit
  5. Ability to be applied to a large and growing number of tasks
  6. Ability to make invisible patterns and opportunities visible

Technology is not good or evil, it is how we as humans apply it. Since we can’t stop the increasing power of A.I., I want us to direct its future, putting it to the best possible use for humans. Yes, A.I. — like all technology — will take the place of many current jobs. But A.I. will also create many jobs if we are willing to learn new things. There is an old saying “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” With that said, it’s a good thing we aren’t dogs!

Start off The New Year by Anticipating disruption and change by reading my latest book The Anticipatory Organization. Click here to claim your copy!

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Best Practices Entrepreneurship Management Marketing Negotiations Sales Skills Women In Business

How to Unlock Your Imagination and Win More Negotiations

“To enhance your imagination, don’t shackle it.” -Greg Williams, The Master Negotiator & Body Language Expert

To win more negotiations, you must know how to unlock your imagination. It’s your imagination that will determine how well you do in the negotiation.

As a child, your imagination was limitless and boundless. You could obtain and achieve anything that your imagination could conceive. No matter what it was, all you had to do was imagine it and it became your reality.

You can capture that same sensation when negotiating by using the following insights to heighten your imagination. The heightening of those senses will lead to more winning negotiations.

Know how you think:

When addressing your reasoning skills, do you note if it’s sequential or random; a person with high sequential reasoning skills is better equipped to create a systematic series of actions directed to a specific outcome. You should be aware of the thought process you engage in to maximize your efforts. Doing so will allow you to see the gaps in your imagination, which in turn can lead to heightening your thought process.

Know your senses:

Are you more visual, kinesthetic, or auditory? The answer is dependent on the environment and circumstances. So, how does the environment impact your thoughts? And, in what situations are you guided by one sense versus another? Again, to engage your imagination more effectively, you need to be aware of what and how to ignite it. Having that information will be the key that brings your imagination to life.

Before you can explore the depths of your imagination, you must know how to reach it. Knowing the answers to the questions above will be the conductor that directs you on the path to that opening.

To enhance your imagination process:

Don’t be restrictive with your thoughts. That means, be willing to consider the inconceivable.

Mix elements of your thoughts that may appear not to be related. Even when thinking disparate thoughts, there may be connecting threads that lead to deeper contemplation. Your imagination will reside in that place.

Converse with selected people in your circle that can help you delve deeper in thought.

Heighten your emotional sense of awareness. The more you’re aware of your emotions, the greater the opportunity to control them. Controlling them allows you to alter your perspective, which can lead to an enhanced imagination.

Meditate – Sometimes, your mind becomes so encircled by negative thoughts that you can’t think succinctly. During such times, if you’re at the negotiation table, call a timeout, remove yourself from the table and meditate. Meditation will slow your thought process and allow you to relieve the stress that comes from negative thoughts. Once you feel a sense of serenity, consider sublimating the sublime where your thought process is concerned.

Watch the meaning you assign to an outcome. If you suspect that it will be negative, your thoughts will flow in that direction. Your mind will enter a different thought process than if you’d considered the outcome to be positive. When you’re not sure of an outcome, consider the possibility of it turning out negatively or positively. Prepare for the worse, but don’t dwell on it. Think about the way you think.

When you sense you’re in a negotiation position that generates angst, use the strategies above to unlock your imagination. By unleashing that inner power, you’ll begin to think in a manner that’s more progressive towards winning 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 “Negotiation Tip of the Week” and the “Sunday Negotiation Insight” click here http://www.TheMasterNegotiator.com/greg-williams/

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Best Practices Entrepreneurship Management Personal Development Women In Business

A Servant Heart Dressed in 5” Heels

How important is a servant heart to a successful business? I was reminded of its power on a cloudy September Wednesday.

I had been preparing to visit a particular dealership for months, and had the pleasure of speaking to the owner’s assistant several times to organize logistics. My first impression was that she was capable, well-spoken and kind, and I was looking forward to meeting her.

On the day of my visit, I tried entering through the front, but it was before 8:00 a.m. and the locked door wouldn’t budge. I started to walk around the building and caught the eye of a woman headed toward the side door. She walked quickly in her 5” inch heels to greet me with a smile, a bear hug and a, “Nice to meet you! I’m the owner of the dealership.” I instantly knew I was in for a fun day.

Positive first impressions were confirmed throughout my visit. The assistant I’d been communicating with also greeted me with a warm smile and hug, as well as a binder filled with the day’s agenda. When the owner and I became engaged in a winding conversation that put us behind schedule, she jokingly said she would have to manage the “two of you.”

As we toured the dealership, the owner smiled and greeted her team everywhere we went. When she asked about her employees’ weekends and introduced me, she was met with smiles, hugs and laughter in return—even at 8:00 in the morning.

We both clearly had a lot of practice in stilettos, and when we dashed over to service, she bent down to pick up a loose piece of paper on the driveway and throw it into the trash. Her actions consistently reflected that she was all in as a leader and walked the talk. We went into the lobby and she chatted with a customer about his morning and asked if the coffee was hot enough.

As we continued, I learned about the many unusual strategies she employed to make her dealership a standout. For example, her sales team members are called Life Improvement Specialists and they adhere to a no commission / no negotiation model designed to take fear and frustration out of the car-buying process. Their whole motivation is to improve the lives of their customers.

In addition, “The Go Giver” is required reading for her employees, and they live and breathe the Bob Burg and John David Mann ideal that states, “Success is the result of specific habits of action: creating value, touching people’s lives, putting others’ interests first, being real, and having the humility to stay open to receiving.”

That ideal is expressed in an annual holiday event where employees serve hot food, offer gently used clothing to families in need, and give presents to children. Last year, they served over 2,000 underprivileged adults and children in their community.

This amazing leader received some of that goodwill in return when her team gifted her with a spin certification to help in her fight against diabetes. She kind of has her hands full running a multi-million-dollar business! Once certified she opted not to take a second job and instead revamped the store’s upstairs, purchased several spin bikes and started teaching spin three times a week to her employees. As a result, one staff member has lost over 100 pounds and improved his health. On occasion, a customer will even join class because word on the street is that she has an amazing playlist.

While I’m trying to illustrate how this leader’s servant heart affects her employees, community and business, it doesn’t even scratch the surface of this collective group of amazing human beings (a.k.a. angels on earth). This leader truly embodies the conscious-based mindset I write and talk about, and it was amazing to witness firsthand how making conscious decisions results in happier employees as well as happier customers.

For this business owner, leadership is not an option—it is a responsibility. She models the actions she expects from her team with every step she takes—which enables a supportive and profitable place to work. In return, her actions inspire her people to hold space for their customers to enjoy the experience of purchasing or servicing their vehicle. Throughout my day with her, I was in awe. Just when I thought I couldn’t be any more surprised about this team, they would share another jaw-dropping example of how they were changing the automotive industry.

As a professional who lives to espouse consciousness in business, I have dreamt about this kind of dealership environment. This leader has fallen in love with her employees and customers. She has found a way around the fears and frustrations of her people and removed them. Her ability to innovate through conscious-based decision-making positively affects all of her stakeholders and puts her far ahead of the competition.

The lesson here is that innovation is no longer just in the form of high tech, but in high touch. Tapping into emotion is a game-changing super power that few leaders know about yet. However, I believe that education will yield more conscious-based automotive brands that change the way employees and customers experience our industry.

Five-inch heels are encouraged, but purely optional.

Jacqueline Jasionowski is the founder of Shift Awake Group. Her “soul” mission is to help others connect with their purpose through a higher level of consciousness that will both drive results and enable innovation along the way. Please contact 614.403.6540 for info.

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Growth Management Personal Development

Massively Big Ideas for Creating Massively Better Franchise Agreements

You’re a franchising industry veteran. You understand franchise agreements like you do the back of your hand. But is it possible that you still have a lot to learn? That there are revolutionary new ideas out there?  I suspect yes, and I would like to tell you about them in this article.  So please read with an open mind.

What’s Wrong with Franchise Agreements?

Chances are you will agree with me when I say that there are plenty of things wrong with the binding documents that you sign with your franchisees, AKA franchise agreements. The biggest of the problems are tied to the fact that franchise agreements typically are binding for five years, or often 10.

There’s security in that, you might say. But what if some great new idea comes along during that time? Let’s say, for example, that you realize that there is a huge opportunity if you begin to sell products online, if you introduce a new line of products, or introduce some other big new idea?

You can’t just announce it and expect the change to automatically happen across all your franchise locations. Your feet are stuck in clay. How can you get all your franchisees to agree?

How can you retroactively change the franchise agreement? You have to change your franchise agreement, but it’s binding for those five or 10 years, and your franchisees are under no obligation to change. You need to write a new agreement and get everyone to sign it. What if they don’t want to? Do you really want to wait five or 10 years before you can issue a new agreement – before you can make the changes you want? Of course you don’t.

Massively Big Idea #1

This isn’t a theoretical problem, I have had many franchises ask me about it over the years. My solution? When you write new franchise agreements, include a procedure for implementing change. Here is what I recommend.

Write a provision in your franchise agreements that states that if management proposes new changes, all franchisees will get to vote on them. If 60 percent of all franchisees vote in favor of the change, it is binding on everyone. One vote per franchisee.

Of course, this new clause will not be included in the franchise agreements that are already in force. But here’s a suggestion – start including it in all the new agreements you create.  Isn’t it better to start including this provision in all the new agreements you write, starting today? In time, your old agreements will cycle out and you can replace them with new ones that include this clause . . . along with your big new business idea. This is a massively big idea

Massively Big Idea #2

Franchise agreements explain activities that franchisees are required to engage in. Your agreements might say that franchisees are expected to attend your annual convention, to take part in the training you provide, to use your signage and display systems – to refrain from selling certain products, or products made by your competitors.

Okay, your franchisees have agreed to adhere to your requirements. But what if they don’t? What if they don’t play by your rules? Are you really going to terminate franchisees who decide not to attend your convention , even though they are required to? Are you going to terminate them if they start to create their own substandard advertisements instead of those that come from you? In most cases no, you are not.

But here’s my solution. Instead of writing franchise agreements that threaten franchisees with termination, your franchise agreement should specify penalties, with specific dollar amounts that franchisees will pay for violations. With a termination option still available, if needed.

For example, the fee could be $1,000 for brand standard violations, for the first month that a franchise is in violation. If the franchise is still in violation after that, the fee increases by $1,000 a month. And it continues to increase by $1000 every month, until the franchisee complies. Plus, you back up those requirements with a clause that says you still have the option to terminate franchisees that don’t comply. Because these requirements are spelled out in the agreement that franchisees sign, you are building in a big incentive for them to adhere to the standards that build your success and your brand.

The penalties you put forth should not be punitive, but they should be rational and motivational. Let’s say, for example, that the typical airfare and hotel costs that franchisees will pay to attend your annual convention will be about $1,500. The penalty for not attending should exceed that amount. If you only penalize them $500, some of them are going to say, “I’ll skip the convention, because the penalty is less than what it will cost me to attend.”  So a $2,500 penalty would be rational.

All penalty dollars should go to the national advertising fund. That way, franchisees will not see your fines as a way enrich the company.  You will gain more support from your franchisees if the funds go to the national advertising fund – a source of funding that benefits them all.

Your franchise agreement should also include a process that franchisees can use to request a variance.  Let’s say, for example, that one of them gets into a major car accident on the way to the airport, went to the hospital, and was unable to attend your convention. Variance requests should be heard by a group of franchisees, not by  management. Franchisees are tougher than management about the behavior of their fellow franchisees.

You should look at every violation you have in your franchise agreement and attach a dollar amount to it. Of course review this process and the fine amounts with your franchise council and get their buy-in, and vet the concept with the entire system so you have the support of the franchisees before implementing this change.

Don’t wait for all your agreements to rollover.  If you have gotten support from your franchisees, implement changes now. By  offering your current franchisees a fine in lieu of termination, you can’t require the fine, but most franchisee would choose it over termination.

This will massively change for the positive how you handle violations.

Hopefully these were two ideas you never have heard of and that you can implement in your franchise system.  These ideas are game changers.