C-Suite Network™

Menu
Search
Close this search box.

Author: Evan Hackel

A dynamic, innovative, thoughtful and inspiring leader with 30 years of experience in franchising, distributed networks and cooperatives. Successful history of: (i) turning around a $700 million distressed franchise system into a $2.0 billion revenue business in four years, (ii) reviving and re-energizing a $3.5 billion revenue franchisor and (iii) founding three franchise systems. Experienced corporate board member.

Currently, a consultant to some of the largest franchise systems in North America. A franchise industry leader, widely published, keynote speaker, member of the New England Franchise Association Board, and Co-chair of the International Franchise Associations Knowledge Share Task Force.|A dynamic, innovative, thoughtful and inspiring leader with 30 years of experience in franchising, distributed networks and cooperatives. Successful history of: (i) turning around a $700 million distressed franchise system into a $2.0 billion revenue business in four years, (ii) reviving and re-energizing a $3.5 billion revenue franchisor and (iii) founding three franchise systems. Experienced corporate board member.

Categories
Growth Personal Development

An Insider’s Practical Advice on Buying a Franchise

You’re speeding along toward buying a franchise. Perhaps a franchise is the ideal business for you at this stage of your life, or a particular franchise has caught your eye because there is no competition for it in the area where you live.

It could be a great opportunity. Franchises offer predictable results, ready-to-go marketing systems and the support of a parent company that you can investigate before you buy. But there are some critical questions to ask that can eliminate costly mistakes and increase the likelihood of buying the right franchise.

Is the Franchise Really the Right One for You?

If you were starting your own dream business from scratch, what would it be? If the franchise you are considering is a lot different from that vision, step back and look for another that “speaks” to your emotions as well as your ambition to succeed. Because chances are you will be getting up every morning and going to that business, make it one that truly excites you.

Have You Studied Enough to Make a Wise Buying Decision?

Franchising companies hold sales meetings for prospective buyers. You should not base a buying decision on what happens in those meetings. They are very motivational, but sometimes do not tell you the full story. And if you feel excessive pressure to buy, move on. Be sure to:

  • Read the franchise agreement from the first sentence to the last and make sure you understand every word of it. Take it to an attorney who has expertise in businesses and franchise purchases and go over everything. The cost is minor in comparison to the risk you are taking.
  • Study at least five or six franchise agreements from different franchising companies and compare them to the agreement from the company you are considering. You will quickly understand what makes the franchise better than others – or worse.

How Much Leeway Will You Have to Run Your Business the Way You Want?

This is a balancing act. You want the leeway to control your business. But on the other hand, the franchise company’s rules protect you from the activities of other franchisees that can hurt the brand. Strong brands are built on consistency.

However, make sure the system is very engaged with owners and asks franchisees for input. Good things can only happen when good ideas from the field get filtered up to senior management.

Is there Competition Near Your Location?

When selecting a location, disasters can happen. While it is never possible to prevent all mishaps, you can turn the odds in your favor by talking to local business owners, who should know what new businesses are coming into the area. Another piece of due diligence is to visit the town hall and review building permits that have been filed in the area.

How Many Current Owners of the Franchise Have You Talked to?

Get to know current owners of the franchise you are considering. Take these steps:

  • Ask about doing business with the parent company. Have there been unexpected expenses and unpleasant surprises?
  • Ask about what is good and bad, it’s a simple question that can tell you a lot.
  • Understand the system culture, how the franchisor and franchisees interact, whether franchisees help each other and whether the franchisor listens.
  • Spend time in current locations and observe what is going on.
  • Ask if you can review their financial statements. This might not be a comfortable question to ask, but those documents can reveal critical information.

Remember, the willingness of franchise owners to help you tells you a lot about the system. And another thing. Always talk to franchisees who weren’t recommended as contacts by the parent company.

How many should you talk to? The simple answer to that question is that you should keep talking to them until you feel comfortable that you are making a good choice. That number could be as few as five franchisees or as many as 20.

About Evan Hackel

Evan Hackel is a 35-year franchising veteran as both a franchisor and franchisee. He is CEO of Tortal Training, a leading training development company, and principal of Ingage Consulting. He is a speaker, hosts “Training Unleashed,” a podcast covering training for business, and author of Ingaging Leadership. To hire Evan as a speaker, visit evanspeaksfranchising.com. Follow @ehackel or call 704-452-7368. Why not have Evan Hackel address your group about franchising success?

 

 

Categories
Growth Management Personal Development

Why Strong Leaders Are Never Afraid to Ask for Help

For some company leaders, the experience of saying the words, “Could you give me some help on this” feels as uncomfortable and unfamiliar as putting on a new pair of shoes. Some leaders are too shy to ask for help. But the bigger issue for many company leaders is that they fear that they will appear incapable, unintelligent or even helpless. One company leader expressed her reservations to me this way, “People expect me to know all the answers. If I ask for help or even suggestions, people are going to think that I don’t know how to make the best decisions for our company.”

I have led a number of organizations and I have a totally different take on this issue. I am convinced that people feel validated and appreciated when I ask them for help. I also believe that people typically enjoy giving help, because we all naturally feel good about helping others.

But there are many other benefits too, including these:

  • You discover strengths and abilities in other people that you might have missed in the past.
  • You cultivate a stronger, braver and more balanced team.
  • You enable people to do more of what they do best, which makes them happier on the job, reduces turnover, improves productivity and pays other unexpected benefits.
  • You establish a healthy atmosphere of give-and-take. When someone helps you, they sense that you “owe” them a favor and are more like to ask for one in return.
  • You show that you do not think you are perfect, which shows that you are a confident leader, not an arrogant one.
  • You free more of your time to manage top-level responsibilities like long-range planning, defining your company’s vision and mission, cultivating new business, and just plain thinking about the biggest issues and opportunities that lie before you. This could be the biggest benefit of all.

Asking for Help Builds Healthy Give-and-Take

After I have asked for help, I often go on to say, “Please feel free to ask me for help if you ever need anything.” Even if I don’t say that, people know they can ask me, because I have established a pattern of being helpful. And I think my efforts have helped build deeper relationships and greater organizational success.

An Experiment for You to Try . . .

Over the next few days, consciously take time to ask people for more help. Consider their reactions. And over time, evaluate how your relationships with those people have improved.

I’m not suggesting you ask for help just for the sake of asking for help, or just to make people feel good. When you do need help, however, don’t shy away from asking. People will appreciate you more. When you ask people for assistance, you demonstrate that you respect their expertise and effort. That will help create a stronger bond between you and those around you and build a much stronger organization.

About the Author

Evan Hackel, the creator of the concept of Ingaged Leadership, is a recognized franchising expert and consultant and successful businessman. Evan is also a professional speaker and author.

Evan is Principal and Founder of Ingage Consulting, a consulting firm headquartered in Woburn, Massachusetts. A leader in the field of training as well, Evan serves as CEO of Tortal Training, a Charlotte North Carolina-based firm that specializes in developing and implementing interactive training solutions for companies in all sectors. To learn more about Inage Consulting and Evan’s book Ingaging Leadership, visit Ingage.net

 

 

Categories
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.

Categories
Growth Management Personal Development

Four Ways You’re Paying for Training . . . Whether You Know It or Not

Every company pays for training. You can either pay for it up front or you pay for it through poor results at many times the cost of doing it right. People don’t think about it this way, but they should. Let me tell you a story about a company where a lack of training was costing $1.68 million a year.

I once directed a team that took over the operations of a chain of nine floor covering stores, a business that was doing $12 million in annual sales. Our overall goal was to show that our training and merchandising tools could increase profits. We noticed was that the average profit margin on products sold was 34%. We knew we could improve that with the right kind of training.

We used a two-part strategy. First, we introduced a more sophisticated merchandising program that included a pricing model, supported by a new store design that communicated the message, “lower pricing” to customers. Second, we trained salespeople to use the tools, communicate that message to customers and focus on solving their problems by focusing more on their needs and helping them find real value vs. simply a low price.

As a result, we increased the margin from 34% to 48% – a 14% improvement. In that $12 million company, the result was a $1.68 million increase in gross profit dollars plus increased sales. The improvement in profit was demonstrable. The reality is that the true differentiator was the training. If we’d simply changed out the merchandising without doing the training, we would have had a much smaller impact.

Another way to look at it is that for years, a failure to train was costing that company $1.68 million a year in gross profit. The cost of training for this company was in essence $1.8 million a per year because they didn’t spend any money on training.   You see, every company pays for training. You can either pay for it upfront or you pay for it through poor results at many times the cost of doing it right

Are you too paying for training without knowing it? Let’s take a close look at just how that could be happening to you.

Lost Opportunity: You Can Train Staff to Close More Sales

Let’s say that your staff should be closing 40% of sales, but currently they are only closing 30%. That means you are losing 25% of potential sales; if your company is doing $10 million in annual sales, you are losing $3,333,333 in sales.

With training, increasing a close rate from 30% to 40% is a reasonable expectation. It can mean training staff how to be more polite, listen better, present products more effectively – and ask for the order. It is very, very doable. And if you are not doing it, you are paying for training without even realizing it.

Which is more costly, losing $3 million in sales or investing in training?

Lost Opportunity: You Can Train to Improve Employee Retention

Losing employees is costly. According to a study by the Center for American Progress, the cost of replacing a worker who earns between $30,000 and $50,000 a year is 20% of annual salary, or about $10,000. (If you’re losing employees who earn more than $50,000, replacing each of them will cost you even more.)

Let’s assume that you have 250 employees and that your annual turnover rate is 30%. So you’re losing 75 employees a year and spending $750,000 to replace them.

(You’ll also be losing money by paying unemployment benefits, losing sales during the time their jobs are not covered, and more, but let’s not figure that in.)

What if you did a better job of training employees and cut your turnover rate by 5%, from 30% to 25%? That is also very doable. That 5% improvement will pay you back more than you expect. If you have 250 employees, you will be losing only about 60 workers a year, not 70, a saving of about $100,000 a year.

Incidentally, the link between training and retention is well documented. Well-trained employees are happier and therefore less likely to leave. And because they do their jobs better, you will have to fire and replace fewer of them.

Which is cheaper – having a high turnover rate that costs you $100,000 a year, or investing in training?

Lost Opportunity: You Can Train Salespeople to Sell Just a Little More on the Average Ticket

Let’s assume that your average customer spends $25 on each visit to one of your locations. Through training, you can increase that average ticket to $28. Your staff can learn to refer customers to other products, upsell, and apply other simple strategies.

Let’s further assume that you have 400,000 customer transactions a year. If you can train your salespeople to increase ticket size from $25 to $28, you will increase annual sales from $10 million to $11,200,000.

Which is cheaper, losing a $1,200,000 in sales or investing in training?

Lost Opportunity: You Can Train to Improve Customer Retention

If your company does that same $10 million in annual sales and your customer retention rate drops five percentage points, that means you have lost $500,000 in sales. Yet the right kind of training in areas likes sales and customer service has been shown to retain many more customers. Again, it is “doable.” And the result can be a big improvement in profitability.

Which is cheaper, losing $500,000 worth of customers a year or training?

Let’s Review

You pay for training, one way or another. Every company pays for training. You can either pay for it upfront or you pay for it through poor results at many times the cost of doing it right.

Your company results are affected by the quality of the training your company provides. Investing in training upfront is going to provide you a 10x or greater return on your dollar.

Additionally, training is the safest investment you can make. If you spend more money in advertising, it may or may not be effective in bringing customers to your business. Training is about improving results with the customers you already have coming to your business.

Every business is different, but how much is poor training costing you? How could investing in training upfront improve your profits?

Those are critical questions to ask in our highly competitive world of business.

 

 

 

Categories
Growth Leadership Personal Development

The Many Benefits of Welcoming Younger Employees to Your Business

In today’s article, I would like to direct your attention to the many benefits and assets that younger employees will bring to your enterprise.

Let’s consider them, one at a time.

Younger Generations Bring Beautiful Diversity and Varied Perspectives

Today’s millennial workforce is comprised of smart young professionals who come from every part of North America, and from other countries that are located just about everywhere. Taken in sum, Younger Generations are a wonderfully varied group.

You could hire a consulting firm to help you decode how all members of all those groups are thinking. But if you hire Younger Generations, you don’t have to. Their valuable perspectives are right there under the same roof as you.

Younger Generations Have Marketplace Knowledge You Need to Succeed

Whatever services or products you sell, most Younger Generations can provide you with the latest intelligence about what is taking place in your industry . . .

  • What do consumers think about your products and your brand?
  • How does your company compare to your competitors?
  • What are the biggest trends in your industry today?
  • What companies are the leaders in your sector, and why?
  • How do Younger Generations make buying decisions?
  • How and when do Younger Generations become loyal customers?
  • Do Younger Generations still want to purchase homes and cars, go to college, and engage in other activities that were “givens” among members of older generations? Or have they changed?
  • What lessons can you learn and apply from cutting-edge companies like Uber, Amazon.com, and Google? Many Younger Generations can give you critical insights that you need.

Viewed from those perspectives, it becomes obvious your Younger Generation workers are one of your company’s most valuable assets. Are you treating them that way? 

Younger Generations Create a Culture of Learning in Your Organization 

You probably think that Younger Generations are the “tech generation.” That might be true, but even more so, they are the generation that learns. One reason is that many of them were in college not that long ago, and learning is part of their DNA. Another is that they are part of a generation that has needed to adapt and adjust to major – and at times cataclysmic – change. Over just the last few decades, that change has included the arrival of dramatic new technologies like the Internet, new social outlooks, the changing demographics of the American population, as well as the time in office of America’s first African-American president.

That is a lot of change for one cohort to absorb. Doing so has uniquely prepared Younger Generations to adapt to change. Clearly, a workforce that learns in that way can equip any organization for success. Hopefully, that success will be yours.

Action Step: Step back and consider whether your organization is one that supports curiosity and learning. If not, what can you do about it?

Younger Generations Bring an Entrepreneurial Outlook to Your Company

Members of older generations generally waited before trying new things. In contrast, Younger Generations like to take risks, act independently, move ahead, take ownership of their work, and get things done. To unlock the benefits of those outlooks, try to lead them in these ways . . .

  • Have the courage to let them take risks.
  • Cut rules and restrictive red tape that cripple ingenuity and ambition.
  • Instead of using traditional reporting relationships. create multifunctional task forces of people from different parts of your organization – teams of energetic young Younger Generations.
  • Reward Younger Generations, thank them, and let them move right on to new challenges. In general, Younger Generations want to keep moving forward instead of looking back at what they have accomplished in the past.

Action Step: Consider whether your organization encourages entrepreneurial thinking. If you are stifling or discouraging it, what improvements can you make?

Younger Generations Encourage Good Succession Planning

Who is going to run your company in 10, 20 or 25 years? You could hire a management consulting firm to help you create a succession plan. But if you hire, retain and promote a superior younger workforce, you won’t need to.

A thriving workforce made up of Younger Generation employees can act like a living, growing succession plan – possibly one that you never need to write down.

Are you welcoming Younger Generations to your organization and embracing all the good they bring? Or are you letting flawed misconceptions and prejudices stand in your way?

Ultimately, the decision is up to you. But if you would like your organization to succeed, I hope you will make the right one.

Action Step: Take an objective look at your succession plan. What role could your Younger Generation employees play in strengthening it?

Categories
Growth Leadership Personal Development

Create a Strategic Plan to Get to Where You Want to Go

by Evan Hackel

A strategic plan is an important tool that can help your organization grow, achieve specific goals on a schedule, and reach its fullest potential. To define the goals and timelines that will be part of your plan, you will need to consult with your management team, appropriate managers and employees, vendors, customers, and other stakeholders too. Also remember that a strategic plan should be grounded in your company’s vision and mission statements, which reflect your values, higher goals, and aspirations.

How far ahead should you be planning? Five years into the future is normally ideal. Your goals should be challenging and stretch you, while also being concrete and understandable. Goals that lie 10 or 20 years into the future become so esoteric that people cannot relate to them.

Now, are you really going to use one plan, accomplish everything that is in it, and then meet again in five years to write a new one? No, not really. I recommend creating a five-year plan, then meeting at least once a year to review it and ask some questions like these:

  • Where are we now in executing this plan?
  • Do we still want to pursue all the goals that it sets out, or have other priorities emerged that we should tackle first?
  • What specific tactics do we need to work on in the next year so that we can accomplish our goals?

The status quo changes quickly in business today, and you will need to revise your plan and keep your goals fresh. Yet there is great value in saying to people, “here are our goals for the next five years.” This is especially true when you create specific initiatives, assignments, and tactics that people will address in the year to follow.

Here’s an analogy that illustrates the importance of planning . . .

If you put 22 kids who have never played soccer before on a soccer field and you said to them, “Here’s a soccer ball, have fun playing soccer,” what kind of soccer game would it be? They wouldn’t necessarily know there were two teams. They wouldn’t know the rules or how to keep score. They might eventually start kicking the ball around, but the game of soccer wouldn’t happen. But when you explain the game and that the goal is to put the ball in the net, then people achieve and accomplish something.

The same is true in business. When you’re just doing the same things over again and no one has given you a goal or a plan, no one has told you how to score, you just keep doing the same things over and over again. You don’t know what you should be doing and it’s impossible to achieve any kind of success.

Concluding thoughts . . .

As the Roman philosopher Seneca once wrote, “If a sailor does not know to which port he is sailing, no wind is favorable.” Another way of saying that is that to get to the right place, you have to know what you and your organization want to achieve. That means defining your mission, vision, and goals.

Categories
Growth Management Personal Development

Five Small Things That Add Up to BIG Training Success

You’ve booked a room for your training session. You’ve ordered coffee, tea, water, and a table of snacks. Of course, you’ve made sure that the projector and sound system will work. So all the bases are covered, right?

Maybe yes, maybe no. Because the fact is, there are a lot of “moving parts” in any live training session. Paying attention to even the smallest of them can help assure that your day of training will be effective, memorable, motivating, and much more.

Pick the Right Seating Arrangement

Here are some configurations to consider:

  • Banquet-style seating, where attendees sit at round tables spread around the training room, works well for training groups of 30 or more.

Benefit: Attendees will already be in groups and there is no need for people to move around for breakout activities.

Downside: Half the people at each table need to turn and twist in order to see the presenter. Because trainees tend to sit with people they already know and like, your trainer might need to mix things up by assigning tables to trainees by putting table numbers on their name tags or have trainees change tables when breaking out into groups.

  • Theater-style seating, where attendees sit in auditorium-style rows, can accommodate very large groups of 100, 200 trainees or even more. It works well when your presenter wants to deliver a big or motivational message.

Benefit: This layout focuses on the attention of trainees on what the presenter has to say, by slightly limiting their ability to interact with each other.

Downside: Be sure to consider the training sessions that will follow a theater-style training session. If trainees will need to break out into small groups, you might want to move later training sessions in the day into another room with banquet-style seating, send them in small groups to different rooms, or make other accommodations.

  • Seminar-style seating, where trainees sit in a U-shaped formation of chairs with the presenter in front of them, works well in smaller groups of up to 20 trainees.

Benefit: Focuses the attention of the group on what the trainer has to say and encourages group discussion.

Downside:  If you are planning a full day of training, it is best to plan to move trainees into other configurations as the day progresses, since sitting seminar-style can get tiring in the long haul.

Offer the Right Food and Snacks 

This is especially important when training starts in the early morning. Of course, you or your planner will provide coffee, tea, and bottled water, but the selections that you make beyond that can affect your trainees’ ability to focus and get the most from training.

Opinions differ on what to offer, but the best thinking today holds that it is smartest to steer trainees away from sugary breakfast items – which can cause energy highs followed by energy crashes – by offering fruits and (if they are in your budget) healthy breakfast cereals like granola and protein-rich selections like eggs and breakfast meats.

Consider Circadian Rhythms when Planning Your Training Day

People tend to have high energy levels first thing in the morning, settle down slightly and become attentive by late morning, then become sleepy after lunch. With a little thought, you can plan accordingly.

One option: Because trainees can tend to “nod off” immediately after lunch, schedule breakout sessions, interactive training exercises, and other energizing activities immediately after lunch instead of lecture presentations. Steer away from lectures where information is delivered one-way.

If Possible, Pick Training Rooms with Natural Light

It’s not always possible. But if you have sat in training sessions in rooms with exterior windows, you know that training in natural lighting usually works better because people feel more energized and positive.

Tip: Post-lunch training sessions when people are likely to be sleepy can become deadly in the dark interior or basement rooms.

Allow Adequate Breaks to Check Phone Messages and eMails

If you’re training a group of new employees, they might not need to check too often for incoming new messages – only about once an hour for personal messages. But if your trainees are your current executives, managers or salespeople, allowing more frequent breaks will let them focus more closely on your training.

Tip: Encourage current employees to “triage” incoming messages by having their clients, administrative support staff and others send them text alerts – which are hard to miss – when an important message needs immediate attention.

Categories
Growth Management Personal Development

Why Ingaged Leadership Improves Quality

Ingaged Leadership is a new leadership approach that I have developed as I have led companies over the course of several decades. What is Ingaged Leadership? It is a new approach to leading that is based on the belief that . . .

When a leader aligns people and creates an organization where everyone works together in full partnership, that organization becomes vastly more successful.

It is a leadership philosophy for those who believe that it is not enough to tell people what to do. To lead fully, it is necessary to involve their minds, creativity, hearts, and emotions. Ingagement goes beyond the style of management you will find in many companies today, where top executives believe that leading means giving instructions or offering incentives for people who meet expectations. Why do I call my new approach Ingagement and not engagement? Because the letter “I” stands for involvement.

Decoding the Link Between Ingagement and Quality

Engaged leaders focus on a variety of activities that can include:

  • Listening openly for ideas, capturing them, acknowledging them, putting them into practice, and giving their creators ownership of them.
  • Sharing as much information as possible – including financial data – with all employees instead of keeping them in the dark.
  • Participating in 360ᴼ reviews and sharing the feedback they receive with all employees.
  • Promoting an internal culture where people are positive and have good attitudes.
  • Allowing employees the autonomy to try new things and make their mark.
  • Surrounding themselves with strong team members with proven skills – not “yes people”.
  • Inviting everyone in an organization to shape and define its vision and mission.
  • Fostering close ties to stakeholders, including customers and vendors, and inviting them to help shape the company’s mission and plans.

While you were reading those bulleted points just above, did you begin to get an idea about why Ingagement can have an immense impact on quality? I would like to think that you did. Because the fact is, people in your company have a lot of things to tell you about the quality of your products and services. So do your customers, vendors and other key stakeholders.

My question to you is, are you listening to them . . . really listening? Or have you allowed a culture to take hold in which . . .

  • Front-line employees who know what customers want and need have no way to get that information to you.
  • Employees self-censor and stop contributing because their ideas have not been heard or acknowledged in the past.
  • People have concluded that the only way they can leave a personal mark in the world is to leave your company or start companies of their own.
  • The overriding perception is that you think you are always right and that others are probably wrong.

Those are hard issues to consider. But if you are a leader who is committed – truly committed – to building quality through participation, I would urge you to think about them.

Ingagement Is Not a Full Democracy

I would like to conclude this article by making a point that would seem to run counter to the ideas that I have expressed in this article . . .

Ingagement and democracy are not the same things

In a democracy, everybody gets to vote, and that is often not appropriate when you are leading a business. If you are contemplating a merger with another company or expanding your operations into another country, for example, you can start by openly gathering as much information and input as you can. But it is your job as a leader to make the ultimate yes or no decision.

Which decisions require a vote and which require you to make the final call? Understanding that is part of the art of leadership. I invite you to make that decision as an Ingaged leader.

Categories
Growth Leadership Personal Development

Coaching People to Move through Discomfort

In a webinar that Anthony Amos gave for us at Tortal Training, he made a comment that we’ve been thinking about ever since . . .

“Good training coaches people to move through discomfort.”

The more we think about that comment, the more we realize how wise Anthony is.  After all, discomfort is one of the main reasons people silently resist training . . .

  • Sales trainees learn your company’s strategies and scripts for structured selling . . . but some never admit that they feel uncomfortable about “asking for the buy” and closing sales.
  • Some mature trainees who are returning to the workforce might be reluctant to admit that they feel insecure about using new technologies.
  • Executives in your leadership training programs take part in workshops that encourage them to work closely with other departments . . . but some of them secretly feel defensive about sharing too much information with the heads of other divisions.
  • Some of the phone representatives who you are training to make cold sales calls never admit they hate to pick up the phone and call people they don’t know.

Dealing with Discomfort 

Before you can overcome discomfort, you have to find ways to uncover where it lies.  Here are some effective ways:

  • Start asking for “mood feedback” as soon as training begins. Asking a question like, “everybody good with that?” or, “anybody got a problem with that?” consistently through training can set up an atmosphere that encourages trainees to open up about any areas of discomfort. If you keep the mood lighthearted and fun, trainees will be more likely to say what is on their minds.
  • Anticipate and deal with possible “hot button” issues when designing your training. If you think about who your trainees are and what you would like them to learn, you can often identify areas of discomfort ahead of time and teach to them.

Effective Coaching Techniques for Areas of Discomfort 

  • Use simulations. If a trainee for a calling center job says that she fears having to deal with angry customers, let her handle two or three simulated calls from dissatisfied customers. (Other trainees can play the part of the callers.) Once she sees that she can handle those calls well, she will gain the confidence she needs.
  • Use videos in your training. If you can show employees dealing with situations or issues that you expect will cause trainees to feel discomfort on the job, you can proactively train employees to perform better.
  • Let trainees break into small sub-groups to discuss what they are learning. Trainees who are reluctant to air fears or concerns before a room full of other trainees are often willing to share their feelings in small groups of their peers. One good technique is to ask each group to appoint a leader to collect comments and then report them to the entire training class.
  • Consider using anonymous feedback. You can ask trainees to anonymously write down their areas of discomfort on index cards, or have them text the training leader. Once those comments are collected, your trainer can talk about them openly with the entire group.
  • Be respectful of trainees’ feelings. You want to keep the mood light but resist the temptation to poke fun at trainees’ fears. If a trainee opens up about something that is on his or her mind – something that is a concern – part of a trainer’s job is to discuss the issue respectfully and carefully.
Categories
Growth Leadership Personal Development

The Problem with Hiring People Who Are Just Like You

Many company owners, managers, and executives make the mistake of hiring people who are just like they are, or putting together teams of similarly minded people. Software engineers tend to like to work with other software engineers, for example, and people who launched businesses by selling assertively tend to hire assertive sales professionals. As a result, their organizations fail to have the balance that they need for peak performance.

Instead, take a look at what’s happening within your organization. As you look at your team, do you see people who are doing only what they are required to do, rather than what they love to do and at which they excel? If that is the case, your company, as well as your team, could be better served if you recruited a mix of people who together provided all the skills necessary.

Imagine that your business is like a symphony orchestra. Now imagine your orchestra is made up only of musicians who can play strings and tympani. What kind of music will it make? Granted, it might sound okay, but it will not make beautiful music. A full symphony orchestra usually has a group of musicians who play more than 13 different instruments, not just one or two. And chances are that your organization needs people who can perform a dozen or more specific roles.

When considering your business teams, think of yourself as a conductor who, with the right mix of ingaged people and a beautiful score, can achieve brilliant success.