Business leaders should encourage their team to drop business jargon from their conversations, since it could help make them more productive.
Dan Pallotta, a non-profit expert and social entrepreneur, explained on Harvard Business Review that things like acronyms, buzzwords, meaningless expressions and abstract definitions just prevent people from communicating – making it an important area for leadership development.
He said: “You will gain tremendous credibility, become much more productive, make those around you much more productive, and experience a great deal more joy in your working life if you look someone in the eye after hearing one of these brain-jammers and tell the person ‘I have no idea what you just said to me’.”
Pallotta described how he used to think he was “stupid” if he did not understand a concept, but pointed out that those who have something to gain must be the ones who work harder to get listeners to comprehend and respond to an idea.
When it comes to communicating with employees, it has become increasingly important to engage with them, according to principal researcher at Roffey Park, Jonny Gifford. He told Changeboard that focusing on this issue will help when dealing with Trade Union actions.
He explained that the cuts currently being seen in the UK are likely to prompt more union activity, so businesses should position themselves to make such conversations easier.
Saturday, 10 December 2011
Friday, 9 December 2011
Is technology improving work-life balance?
It is not clear to what extent technology is helping to improve the work-life balance of business professionals with children, says a Huffington Post blogger. For many chief executive officers (CEOs) and other senior professionals, the introduction of smartphones and remote working capability has allowed them to spend more time at home with their offspring, noted Monica Gallagher Sakala in a recent post. However she pointed out that it has yet to be seen how it affects children when their parents are constantly fiddling with their BlackBerrys or iPhones while at home, as they balance being a CEO with being a father or mother figure. Ms Gallagher Sakala noted that many business professionals are pessimistic about how much of a work-life balance they can expect, adding: “I say enough of the work-life ‘balance’ debate. Own your choice, be proud of your decision and be realistic about its consequences on your career or your family.” The popularity of remote working has grown significantly in recent years, with employees often able to access internal networks from the comfort of their own home, where they can look after young children. Writing for Forbes, Microsoft’s partner group vice president Jenni Flinders accepted that remote working does not make it “effortless” to balance one’s job with other responsibilities, but claimed the technology has helped. In her view, it is easy to take for granted how simple it has become for many firms to connect with their employees off-site. |
Tuesday, 6 December 2011
5 Reasons Peer Advisory Groups Can Work For CEOs
Imagine for a moment being the CEO. It’s your responsibility to make good decisions that are best for the company as a whole. While you may have a terrific senior management team and a highly engaged board of directors, the people giving you advice also have a personal stake in the outcome.
Also, when CEOs are suffering from personal problems, the effect of support from family and friends is 53% to 79% weaker than support from fellow CEOs in restoring the leaders’ overall effectiveness, say Michael L. McDonald of the University of Texas and James D. Westphal of the University of Michigan. Personal problems such as conflict with children or marital issues hurt CEOs’ effectiveness because they prompt the chief executives to pull back on important interpersonal behaviors involving subordinate managers, the researchers say.
As a CEO, I’m not suggesting you don’t listen to your senior people or your board, who are in most cases (hopefully) sincerely offering their best input and counsel, but it begs this question: Would a CEO also benefit from being asked tough questions and receiving counsel from fellow CEOs, who have no personal vested interest in the outcome?
As you may have guessed, Vistage member CEOs have been answering yes to this question since 1957. Here are five benefits (among others of course), a CEO will realize by regularly engaging with a group of his/her peers:
1) Empathy – If you’ve never been a CEO, it’s nearly impossible to put yourself in a CEO’s shoes. It’s difficult for most of us, regardless of how much we care or how objective we believe we are in offering counsel to our CEOs, to imagine what that’s really like. Fellow CEOs aren’t looking through the lens of marketing, finance, or HR, they’re looking at the whole picture because it’s what they do every day. The empathy that one CEO shares with another is a priceless benefit of the CEO peer advisory experience. Its impact is not only felt professionally, but personally as well.
2) Objectivity – An employee or board member, regardless of their espoused objectivity and true sincerity, has a personal stake in the outcome. Fellow CEOs from non-competing businesses are not burdened with that extra layer of consideration. They can ask the hard questions without regard for sacred cows, personal relationships or other organizational/industry blinders. It’s an eye opening experience for many CEOs when peers looks at a specific challenge through a completely impartial lens.
3) Shared Challenges – While the CEOs in the peer group may serve entirely different types of customers in widely varying industries, they share common challenges regarding employees, growth, profitability, executive development, technology, and uncertainty, just to name a few. The more they talk, the more they realize how much they have in common and how much they can learn from on another.
4) Learning – While they have shared challenges, the myriad industries they represent set the table for rich conversations about common practices in one sector that are often quite different from practices in another sector. Sharing ideas across industries help CEOs learn from one another. What’s more, these CEOs will also share their personal triumphs and failures. This display of trust creates an environment where the CEO can be truly vulnerable to learn and grow. And unlike one-to-one executive coaching, which can be a rich complement to the peer advisory experience, there’s nothing quite like the power of the group dynamic.
5) Accountability – As CEOs share their challenges and aspirations with their peers, being CEOs as they are, they tend to be serious about holding their peers accountable to make the tough choices and to deliver on their stated courses of action. As I’ve heard from so many Vistage Chairs and members, this atmosphere of shared accountability may be the most powerful dynamic of all when it comes to the peer advisory experience.
By Leo Bottary
Also, when CEOs are suffering from personal problems, the effect of support from family and friends is 53% to 79% weaker than support from fellow CEOs in restoring the leaders’ overall effectiveness, say Michael L. McDonald of the University of Texas and James D. Westphal of the University of Michigan. Personal problems such as conflict with children or marital issues hurt CEOs’ effectiveness because they prompt the chief executives to pull back on important interpersonal behaviors involving subordinate managers, the researchers say.
As a CEO, I’m not suggesting you don’t listen to your senior people or your board, who are in most cases (hopefully) sincerely offering their best input and counsel, but it begs this question: Would a CEO also benefit from being asked tough questions and receiving counsel from fellow CEOs, who have no personal vested interest in the outcome?
As you may have guessed, Vistage member CEOs have been answering yes to this question since 1957. Here are five benefits (among others of course), a CEO will realize by regularly engaging with a group of his/her peers:
1) Empathy – If you’ve never been a CEO, it’s nearly impossible to put yourself in a CEO’s shoes. It’s difficult for most of us, regardless of how much we care or how objective we believe we are in offering counsel to our CEOs, to imagine what that’s really like. Fellow CEOs aren’t looking through the lens of marketing, finance, or HR, they’re looking at the whole picture because it’s what they do every day. The empathy that one CEO shares with another is a priceless benefit of the CEO peer advisory experience. Its impact is not only felt professionally, but personally as well.
2) Objectivity – An employee or board member, regardless of their espoused objectivity and true sincerity, has a personal stake in the outcome. Fellow CEOs from non-competing businesses are not burdened with that extra layer of consideration. They can ask the hard questions without regard for sacred cows, personal relationships or other organizational/industry blinders. It’s an eye opening experience for many CEOs when peers looks at a specific challenge through a completely impartial lens.
3) Shared Challenges – While the CEOs in the peer group may serve entirely different types of customers in widely varying industries, they share common challenges regarding employees, growth, profitability, executive development, technology, and uncertainty, just to name a few. The more they talk, the more they realize how much they have in common and how much they can learn from on another.
4) Learning – While they have shared challenges, the myriad industries they represent set the table for rich conversations about common practices in one sector that are often quite different from practices in another sector. Sharing ideas across industries help CEOs learn from one another. What’s more, these CEOs will also share their personal triumphs and failures. This display of trust creates an environment where the CEO can be truly vulnerable to learn and grow. And unlike one-to-one executive coaching, which can be a rich complement to the peer advisory experience, there’s nothing quite like the power of the group dynamic.
5) Accountability – As CEOs share their challenges and aspirations with their peers, being CEOs as they are, they tend to be serious about holding their peers accountable to make the tough choices and to deliver on their stated courses of action. As I’ve heard from so many Vistage Chairs and members, this atmosphere of shared accountability may be the most powerful dynamic of all when it comes to the peer advisory experience.
By Leo Bottary
Monday, 29 August 2011
For my fellow reds out there - interesting read - Same old story | Football Features, Music, Team of the Week, Twitter, Fantasy | Sky Sports http://ping.fm/234xt
If your a business owner in the East Mids - Limited spaces left - Vistage Business Leaders’ Meeting - Derby - RegOnline http://ping.fm/kFJ8V
Sunday, 21 August 2011
Looking to gauge opinion on bringing back the Resellers Forum as a compliment to the UK channel community | LinkedIn#commentID_49223739#commentID_49223739 http://ping.fm/jmzsn*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1&trk=NUS_DIG_DISC_Q-ucg_mr#commentID_49223739
Tuesday, 16 August 2011
If your interested as to what I am upto with my peer group mastermind think tank - please take a look http://ping.fm/9Hi3r
Monday, 15 August 2011
New Blog post @Fresh Mindset1: Remember that ‘follow-up’ is one of the essential parts of the sales cycle http://ping.fm/pSExs
Remember that ‘follow-up’ is one of the essential parts of the sales cycle
Summer is well and truly upon us. People are generally in a good mood due to holidays, improved weather and for some a much improved business environment. The summer does however highlight one of the most important yet frustrating parts of the sales cycle – Follow-up. During summer, the combination of prospects’ annual leave timed perfectly so that they return the day you go on annual leave, can result in an entire month disappearing before contact happens.
This article’s aim is to be a strong reminder of the danger of becoming lazy in your follow-up despite it being challenging to get hold of people after they have shown initial interest.
Most of us naturally find follow-up beyond the first couple of attempts quite uncomfortable as we perceive ourselves turning into the “stalker salesperson” who never leaves us alone even though we have told them to stop. This is rarely the case but we convince ourselves it is. Business developers have to accept that at the best of times prospects are not very good at getting back in touch, not because your offering is not important, but more often than not, because there “always” appears to be something more urgent that they need to deal with.
If you have approached the sales process in the correct way with good preparation before a meeting, healthy dialogue with lots of listening in the meeting, agreed next steps from both sides and a proposal is requested from you, why is it so hard to get hold of people after the sales meeting?
• People are not very organised themselves & rely on you calling them back
• People are busy & their time is focused on reactive events
• Prospects often intend to call you back but it rarely gets to the top of their to do list
• Prospect may not be the decision maker & is having a tough time getting hold of the true decision maker
• They may have forgotten the value you offer as other things have taken over
The fact is that when you eventually get to speak to the prospect, as long as you have been polite and genuine in your follow-up messages, 95% of the time they are apologetic and say something like, “I’m really sorry, I’ve been meaning to get back to you but things have been very hectic”. A very productive discussion then ensues, where you gain a better understanding of their situation or involvement of other key players, etc so you can make necessary changes to the proposal and decide the best next steps in the relationship.
Below are 5 key habits to ensure you are on top of your game and do not waste the hard efforts you have put in to get this far. Naturally, all the points are based 100% on the assumption that the prospect has not told you to stop calling or that they are not moving forward with you this particular time.
1. Never leave a meeting without agreeing actionable next steps
This sounds so obvious but often it is the simple things that we forget. Having shadowed a number of sales meetings with our clients, SBR Consulting still too often observe a meeting finishing without tangible next steps. Before the meeting decide what your objectives upon leaving should be and, if applicable, ideally always set up a following meeting, even if provisional, as this means you keep the dialogue continuous and it keeps you in front of the prospect.
2. Use different methods of follow-up
Different people respond differently to communication. Nowadays, we have so many ways to interact, make sure you are using different methods. Many use email as their main follow-up and although this may work, there is a danger the prospect’s inbox is full of emails that they do not get around to dealing with.
Always make sure you get direct dials AND mobile numbers. So many sales situations can be moved on in a mutually beneficial way by following-up on a mobile. This is totallyacceptable as you have been asked to follow up and in doing so you help prospects move their own plans forward or, if applicable, put them on hold, but at least you know what they are thinking.
3. Remember to have the client’s/prospect’s best interests at heart
The statement, “Selling is a transference of conviction” applies to all business development. When you know the clients situation and you truly believe your service provides true value, it is important to keep communication open. Keeping your prospect’s interests at the centre allows you to feel more confident to follow-up more naturally.
4. Add a “Follow-up” category in your Action / Task List
A great top tip is to add a “Follow-Up” category to your task list so you will not forget all the calls you need to make which often fall by the wayside as they straddle all the stages of the sales pipeline. Print out your updated task list regularly and keep track of who you need to follow-up with using the same rigour that you apply to your lottery numbers or tracking your expenses!
5. Make “Follow-up” a habit – choose to be good at it
Polite Persistence is a key attribute for anyone involved in Business Development. There are certainly boundaries we do not believe should be crossed but those who understand the importance of hanging in there a little longer than others will reap the benefits as long as it is combined with a bit of emotional intelligence.
In conclusion, all business is built on strong follow-up with clients, prospects and relationships and you have to decide that there is no substitute to personal contact and that this is part of your routine. Remember, our job as business developers is to be aware of where prospects and clients are in their buying cycle and ensure that our follow-up is in line with their real needs.
This article has been provided by SBR Consulting. Contact Lars Tewes with your sales challenges and questions at ltewes@sbrconsulting.com
This article’s aim is to be a strong reminder of the danger of becoming lazy in your follow-up despite it being challenging to get hold of people after they have shown initial interest.
Most of us naturally find follow-up beyond the first couple of attempts quite uncomfortable as we perceive ourselves turning into the “stalker salesperson” who never leaves us alone even though we have told them to stop. This is rarely the case but we convince ourselves it is. Business developers have to accept that at the best of times prospects are not very good at getting back in touch, not because your offering is not important, but more often than not, because there “always” appears to be something more urgent that they need to deal with.
If you have approached the sales process in the correct way with good preparation before a meeting, healthy dialogue with lots of listening in the meeting, agreed next steps from both sides and a proposal is requested from you, why is it so hard to get hold of people after the sales meeting?
• People are not very organised themselves & rely on you calling them back
• People are busy & their time is focused on reactive events
• Prospects often intend to call you back but it rarely gets to the top of their to do list
• Prospect may not be the decision maker & is having a tough time getting hold of the true decision maker
• They may have forgotten the value you offer as other things have taken over
The fact is that when you eventually get to speak to the prospect, as long as you have been polite and genuine in your follow-up messages, 95% of the time they are apologetic and say something like, “I’m really sorry, I’ve been meaning to get back to you but things have been very hectic”. A very productive discussion then ensues, where you gain a better understanding of their situation or involvement of other key players, etc so you can make necessary changes to the proposal and decide the best next steps in the relationship.
Below are 5 key habits to ensure you are on top of your game and do not waste the hard efforts you have put in to get this far. Naturally, all the points are based 100% on the assumption that the prospect has not told you to stop calling or that they are not moving forward with you this particular time.
1. Never leave a meeting without agreeing actionable next steps
This sounds so obvious but often it is the simple things that we forget. Having shadowed a number of sales meetings with our clients, SBR Consulting still too often observe a meeting finishing without tangible next steps. Before the meeting decide what your objectives upon leaving should be and, if applicable, ideally always set up a following meeting, even if provisional, as this means you keep the dialogue continuous and it keeps you in front of the prospect.
2. Use different methods of follow-up
Different people respond differently to communication. Nowadays, we have so many ways to interact, make sure you are using different methods. Many use email as their main follow-up and although this may work, there is a danger the prospect’s inbox is full of emails that they do not get around to dealing with.
Always make sure you get direct dials AND mobile numbers. So many sales situations can be moved on in a mutually beneficial way by following-up on a mobile. This is totallyacceptable as you have been asked to follow up and in doing so you help prospects move their own plans forward or, if applicable, put them on hold, but at least you know what they are thinking.
3. Remember to have the client’s/prospect’s best interests at heart
The statement, “Selling is a transference of conviction” applies to all business development. When you know the clients situation and you truly believe your service provides true value, it is important to keep communication open. Keeping your prospect’s interests at the centre allows you to feel more confident to follow-up more naturally.
4. Add a “Follow-up” category in your Action / Task List
A great top tip is to add a “Follow-Up” category to your task list so you will not forget all the calls you need to make which often fall by the wayside as they straddle all the stages of the sales pipeline. Print out your updated task list regularly and keep track of who you need to follow-up with using the same rigour that you apply to your lottery numbers or tracking your expenses!
5. Make “Follow-up” a habit – choose to be good at it
Polite Persistence is a key attribute for anyone involved in Business Development. There are certainly boundaries we do not believe should be crossed but those who understand the importance of hanging in there a little longer than others will reap the benefits as long as it is combined with a bit of emotional intelligence.
In conclusion, all business is built on strong follow-up with clients, prospects and relationships and you have to decide that there is no substitute to personal contact and that this is part of your routine. Remember, our job as business developers is to be aware of where prospects and clients are in their buying cycle and ensure that our follow-up is in line with their real needs.
This article has been provided by SBR Consulting. Contact Lars Tewes with your sales challenges and questions at ltewes@sbrconsulting.com
Thursday, 11 August 2011
Advantages Of CEO/MD Peer Groups
Advantages Of CEO/MD Peer Groups
As a leader of your company, do you want guidance of other experienced people in making business decisions? Do you seek expert advices on dealing with various problems you face in your company? Then join a peer group.
•CEO Groups are a consulting group which consist of CEOs, presidents, managing directors and other top level people. They generally meet once in a month and seek other people advice and counsel each other. Here are some of the benefits of joining a my Key CEO peer group in the East Midlands or groups based in other cities:
•CEO peer groups provide vast exposure in which you get to meet Key leaders of different industries and find out how various issues of different industries are so relevant to your own business.
•A peer group is an ideal opportunity to share and learn from other experienced business leaders. Whether you are planning to start a new business or thinking of exit planning, you can get honest opinions and advices from the people in your group. Other CEOs don't have any reason to be your 'YES' man. They give brutally honest answers and solutions to your problems.
•Peer groups in the East Midlands or elsewhere give you chance to discuss new business strategies, new ideas and plans. Usually while interacting in the office, CEOs or other top executives are so busy worrying about day to day issues, that they don't get time to see the bigger picture. A peer group allows you to see the bigger picture and chalk out plan accordingly.
In addition to all these benefits, peer groups give a lot of importance to confidentiality of information. You can freely discuss your problems, ideas and business strategies with others in a peer group and be assured that all the information you shared will not be leaked out of the group.
If your interested, I am running two Business breakfast meetings so you can find out more about how my peer group will be running, please click on the links to Register:
9th September - Risley www.regonline.co.uk/ah1 and
11th October - Loughborough - www.regonline.co.uk/ah2
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