How Emotions Affect Leadership Behavior

James Kouzes, Dean's Executive Professor of Leadership, Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara University and Barry Posner, PH.D., Dean of the Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara University are the co-authors of Leadership Challenge, a seminal book on Leadership.
                                                  
For over 20 years they have surveyed workers, around the globe, asking what they admired most about their leaders. From their survey they identified four qualities/attributes a leader must demonstrate to attract followers:

I use Multiple Health System's model of Emotional Intelligence EQi 2.0 which has five major categories (Self-Perception, Self-Expression, Interpersonal, Decision Making, and Stress Management) and 15 sub-categories

• Honesty

• Forward-looking
• Inspiring
• Competent

It is my belief that these four attributes are partially driven by Emotional Intelligence (EI). **Emotional Intelligence is a driver of behavior— good or bad.** Each of these four attributes include behaviors of admired leaders. Many times leadership-behavior can be enhanced by good emotions or destroyed by bad emotions. A very good question might be, “How does Emotional Intelligence impact these four most admired traits of leaders?”

The best way to answer that question is to apply the Emotional Intelligence model— one of the most widely used, highly validated Emotional Intelligence, self-assessments available today. How, then, does Emotional Intelligence enhance these four leadership skills:

Honesty?
I believe it is very difficult to be honest without high levels of Empathy and Social Responsibility. Empathy, the ability to recognize or understand how others feel is crucial to building trust and trust is the foundation of effective leadership. Empathy plays here because it is difficult to be dishonest if one has a real sense of what one feels when you have been deceived. To understand how others feel when they have been deceived is a motivator to honesty and requires empathy.

Social Responsibility, is one's moral compass that directs behavior toward promoting the greater good and contributing to society and other social groups. If one feels a high level of Social Responsibility, they are more likely to be honest with others than those sensing a lower or none.

Forward Looking?
Being a Visionary requires higher levels of Reality Testing and Optimism that have the greatest impact on one's ability to look forward or be a visionary. To want to see what the future holds, one needs Optimism. Few pessimists want to look forward and even if they do, what they see is not motivating to others. A sense of Optimism and an exciting future draws followers like a magnate. However, a leader needs to be realistic about what they see and communicate reality to others. Reality Testing or the ability to see things as they really are is accurately sizing up the environment, resources, and future trends to build realistic plans and goals.

Inspiring?
Being Inspirational requires higher levels of Emotional Expression and Assertiveness. Emotionally Expressive individuals can readily express emotions and convey their feelings in a way that is constructive for others. They have a unique ability to use facial expressions and body language to express emotions and are especially adept at finding ways to express emotions both positive and negative— in ways that are well received. Assertiveness is often perceived as a negative trait but frankly it is essential to effective leadership and a big part of being inspirational. Assertiveness allows one to draw a line between passive and aggressive words and deeds. It allows one to effectively communicate goals, dreams and a future in a manner that is clear and concise.

Competent?
Competency is often thought of as more cognitive thinking than emotional. But emotional intelligence plays a big part in being capable, in the eyes of others. Those who are thought of as being highly competent are often found to have higher than normal scores in Self-Actualization and Emotionally Self-Aware. Self-Actualization allows one to be aware of things that are important in a manner that eludes to a plan. A higher score in this area indicates that you will not likely be satisfied with the status quo.

To be Emotionally Self-Aware is the beginning of understanding others. Competency in one's role demands awareness of your own emotions, as well as others. You must be Self-Aware before you can be aware of others.

To determine leadership potential and/or build on strengths and manage weaknesses of existing and potential leaders, I have found the measurement of Emotional Intelligence levels to be an excellent indicator of potential and a great coaching tool. In building and coaching leaders we have found that high levels of overall Emotional Intelligence and higher scores in the EQi 2.0 subscales: Empathy, Social Responsibility, Optimism, Reality Testing, Emotional Expression, Assertiveness, Self-Actualization and Emotional Self-Awareness are excellent indicators of leadership potential and provide great opportunities to coach leaders to even more productive level.

Steps to Raising Money

There is no single best way to raise money for your new venture. What works for me may be less than effective for you. However, there are some guidelines that can be very helpful if this is your first effort in raising money. Here are a few guidelines that can make the job easier and hopefully, more effective.

First, determine how much money you want to raise. It is likely, if this is your first money raising effort, that you will be talking to angel investors or micro Venture Capital firms and sums of money less than $1,000,000. The amount of money you will need should be determined by understanding the next major milestone in the business growth process, how you believe you can get there, what you will need to reach the goal, and how long it will take to get there. For instance, if you are developing software and are currently in the "beta stage," how long will it take to have a marketable product and what will it cost to run the company until you get there, also know as the burn rate. It may take $30,000/month for 10 months or $300,000 to get that marketable product. One thing you can be sure of is that you will most likely be wrong in the time it will take but you should not be far off when it comes to your monthly expenses. Give yourself a month or two cushion in case you encounter problems and ask for $360,000, first round. Being specific gives the investors confidence that you are reasonable sure of achieving your goal and reasonably sure of reaching it in the estimated time frame.

Second, you will need a few documents that describe your business. One being the "One Line Pitch" like "The patented Grey-Spook widget is recommended by Doctors at the Madness Clinic and designed to reduce the pain of surgery by simply holding it between your teeth for 14 minutes immediately after you awaken from anesthesia." Another being the Business Summary, a paragraph that explains the business process and what your product does, like: "Grey Spook, pain relief widgets are used everywhere to reduce pain and discomfort from surgery. Patients rave about the effectiveness of this simple, yet effective tool for managing pain. The "Grey-Spook" is priced at only $25 and we estimate the market to be three billion annually. There are no known competitors." Finally, you should have a Management Summary, something like: "Robert E. Nuff, invented Grey-Spook and has had 15 years managing pain relief at Robert E. Lee hospital in Houston TX as head nurse. Tammy Toogood has 30 years manufacturing experience with the leading manufacturer of pain management devices in Galveston, TX. " These tools are intended to impart maximum knowledge in the shortest possible time.

Once you have gotten the attention of a potential investor be prepared to deliver a more detailed Executive Summary, possibly as long as 3-4 pages. This short, focused description should be carefully crafted and void of anything that resembles "fluff." It will likely be the first substantive information several investors will ever see regarding your company, so make it good. In this summary, you should include the problem you are solving, why it needs solving, how your product solves the problem in unique and intriguing ways and finally why you and your team are the best choice to "deliver the goods." End with a "hook" about the financial end-game and how your approach will distance you from any competition. Don't go overboard here, but do be aggressive. Have this summary prepared and send to any VC that requests it. Wait, however, until it is requested. Be a little hard to get, not too much so, but a little.

Lastly, build a 7-15 page Power-Point Presentation. This should be your most detailed description, yet. Understand that, on average each page (I still call them slides) will take about 3 minutes to present. So, on average a 7 pager will take 21 minutes to present and leave 9 minutes for questions in a 30 minute presentation and a 15 pager will take 45 minutes and leave 15 minutes for questions in an hour presentation. It is good to have at least 2 versions as you are often time limited and 2 versions will allow flexibility to meet most needs. Remember in preparing your pages (slides) keep the information on the slide at a minimum. Never have to say, "I know you can't see this very well." The Power-Point presentation should be practiced using key words and leveraging "attention getters." Be certain you include summary financials and how you will use them. Most good presentations are the shorter versions.

This brief, and certainly not "all inclusive" commentary is intended to give a quick overview of what investors ask for and need to make decisions about investing in your company. Follow them and increase your chances of success.

Entrepreneurs and Success Strategy - Five Steps to Good Strategy

 Strategy is a military term referring to the process of deciding the best environment, in which, your assets may be deployed to gain the maximum benefit. Obviously there is both good and bad strategy. Were that not the case there would be little demand for the book attributed to Sun Tzu, a ranking military general and strategist during the Chinese Wu dynasty in the late sixth century. It makes sense then that if one is fighting a war or engaged in business that good strategy would be a good objective.

Few need good strategy as badly as Entrepreneurs. Often success or failure depends upon the quality of strategy Entrepreneurs build to grow their businesses.

What does good and bad strategy look like, is a good question? Richard Rumelt posted a good article on the subject of strategy in the McKinsey quarterly, recently. He proposes that bad strategy has, at least 4 recognizable characteristics: Failure to face the problem, making goals strategy, bad objectives, and fluff.

Failure to face the problem

All too often leaders are more interested in surface appearance and rely upon the premise that few people read or care about the real problem, they simply want the problem fixed. So, they pen and present strategies that are surface and short-term centered. They often attempt to overwhelm those that might implement the strategy with "texture and detail," as Rumelt puts it.

Occasionally, executives will just ignore problems and try to replace them with past achievements. They may replace strategy with amazing goals and hope the problems go away, but we all know, hope is not a strategy (good or bad).

Making goals strategy

Many executives are great at setting audacious goals, goals that will "take your breath away" also hoping that the goals will take your mind off the need for strategy. One great warrior we are familiar with was George S. Patton. One of Patton's favorite quotations was from Frederick the Great: "L'audace, l'audace, toujours l'audace." Translation: Audacity, audacity, always audacity. But George S. Patton knew audacious goals were a tactic, not a strategy. He knew that choosing where to be audacious was more important that being audacious. So do not be tempted to dazzle others with audacious goals as a substitute for good strategy.

I am sure you have had experiences where leaders attempt to overwhelm followers with goals like: If you don't have a competitive advantage, don't compete (paraphrased and attributed to Jack Welch) or Win one for the Kipper (attributed to Knute Rockne). Both are goals but not strategy.

Bad strategic objectives

For those who do not believe in or understand the value of strategy, one of the most frequent ways they approach the process is to make sure the objectives are fuzzy. With fuzzy or unclear objectives you can hope that getting close to the goal will get you where you wish to go, but it will not. The most frequent way bad objectives are presented is through the planning process and having too many objectives.

Instead of identifying a few of the most important goals and developing a strategy to achieve them, executives are gathering all the goals and presenting them in need of strategy. the problem that presents is not all goals are achieved with the same strategy and unless an organization clearly knows those that are most important, it is very likely that bad strategy will be employed.

Fluff

This my favorite and possibly one of the most frequently used. Fluff is simply saying something that can be said in a few simple words with more and bigger words. Using jargon to express something simple. An example given by Rumelt, and I can site none better, is the bank that expresses its strategy as customer-centric intermediation. Look beyond the fluff and you get the bank's strategy is to be a bank. The customer-centric part is jargon and intermediation is a big word for taking deposits and then lending out the money. Bad strategy is often disguised by fluff. Another place where you will often find a lot of fluff is in an organization's vision and mission. Sounds good, but does it really mean anything? If you have to ask that question, it is not good strategy.

So what, then, is necessary to craft good strategy. I believe there are 5 important steps to crafting good strategy:

1. Carefully analyze the current condition- You can't know how to get to where you want to go unless you know where your are.

2. Vision where you want to be - Have a picture of where you want to be.

3. Understand - that tomorrow is not likely to resemble today. Assuming that next year, next month, next week will be just like today is a big mistake. Accept that we live in a world where change is exponential.

4. Develop a big picture plan - Coping with a changing world requires certainty of destination but flexible plans to get there.

5. Implement tactics - engage the people, equipment and capital to reach the destination


The key to good strategy found in these 5 points: analyze, visualize, know things change, get the big picture and implement. Follow these 5 steps to good strategy and enjoy the victories.

Stephen J. Blakesley is the host of the weekly Internet radio show: Entrepreneurs R Us http://www.blogtalkradio.com/sjb340. He is an Author and Speaker, His most recent books include: Strategic Hiring, The Target-The Secret of Superior Performance an How to Make the Next Hire Your Best Hire His blog is found at http://www.entrepreneursrus.com, please visit and comment.

Thank You!



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The Five Point Job Recovery Plan

Entrepreneurs don't often do the things they do, for the money. They often do them for the passion they have or simply to prove that they can do it. Even though 500,000 new businesses starting each year (the number of startups in 2010) seems like a big number, it is actually an all time low during the recent past (2006 startups numbered 667,000).

"Why" you ask, "is this important?" Here is why; Businesses, less than five years old, have contributed all the net new jobs in the United States in the last decade. And most startup businesses have no employees. So, those that do are ever-so-much more important in our effort to dig our way out of this recession. While I would not be so bold to say that Entrepreneurism alone will return us to full employment ( 5%), it is certainly an important factor.

So, an interesting and important question might be: Why are new business startups off nearly 25 % from their all time high in 2006? And/or; What needs to be done to restore the startup level to the 2006 high and beyond? And/or; How do we go about greasing the sled for Entrepreneurs and Business Startups?

I believe that this five point strategy will go a long way to restoring the climate in this country that incentivizes not just Entrepreneurship but Successful Entrepreneurship (establishing a means of improving the 5 year success rate of startup from 30 to 50 percent).                                           


1. Most money for a startup business comes from the owner's savings which includes the equity of their home or retirement savings. Money, from home equity and/or retirement savings, has shrunk considerably since 2007, for reason I won't go into here. Considerable losses have occurred in those two areas since 2007. I suggest that we compensate for that difficulty by giving those who start businesses a TAX CREDIT up to $25,000 for money invested in a start-up business.

2. Reward those Entrepreneurs that are successful with a one-time 150% deduction for annual wages of new employees, during the first 5 years of operation.

3. Streamline and reorganize the US Patent office which now takes an average of over 3 years to approve a patent application. Begin by giving first time patent appliers a guaranteed 90 day up or down answer.

4. Reward Entrepreneurs that start businesses in the potential high-growth industries of tomorrow: health care, business services, leisure, construction, manufacturing and retail. Give all business startups, surviving the first year in those industries, a $25,000 grant to purchase needed equipment or software.

5. Provide TAX REBATES, up to $5000 a year for the first 5 years of Entrepreneurial activity involving a business with 5 employees or more, provided they can show evidence of investment in specified Entrepreneurial education.


I am calling this five point strategy, The Entrepreneurs R Us Job Recovery Strategy. If you feel this would benefit you or someone you know who is in a startup business situation or thinking of engaging in one please write us.                                    

                                                                          

Startup Success Formula

The Startup Genome project has issued its first report based on a study of 650 Internet Startup companies by the authors Max Marmer, Bjoern Lasse Herrmann and Ron Berman. Their goal was to lay the groundwork for a better understanding of how startups progressed through the business cycle. No doubt their hope is to better understand the likelihood of success by startup companies in the Internet space.

Their findings, though preliminary, would be of value to venture capital firms evaluating possible investment opportunities as well as those who might be considering a business startup. Though their studies involved only Internet businesses it is interesting to think how effective their finding might be in evaluating startups in other industries.

Based on a paper only recently published, they established two important foundation tools for evaluating the likely success of Internet startup companies. I think that those findings are valuable to all and I will share, with you my understanding of those discoveries.

To begin, they established a startup Life cycle consisting of 6 stages:

1. Discovery
2. Validation
3. Efficiency
4. Scale
5. Maximizing Profits
6. Renewal

The authors defined each stage and I believe it would be beneficial for us to review those definitions:

Discovery-Startups in this stage are focused on the understanding of whether or not their idea or concept has value. In other words, would anybody pay to get what the idea or concept would provide.

Activities that startups might be engaged in during this phase might be interview of those that make up the potential market, produce some prototypes of the product or service, joining and incubator or accelerator group, seeking financing from friends and family, seeking and establishing relationships with the fires mentors and advisors.

Validation-First attempts to sell the product or service and gauge the potential market and its value as well as experience in how best to achieve sales. Evaluate the efficiency with which customers can be captured and kept.

Activities at this stage are: refining the product, establishing the metrics, obtaining of seed funding and making the first key hires.

Efficiency-Customers must be acquired efficiently, product must be deliverable at a profit and business model must be fine-tuned.

Activities that are likely to occur at this stage are clarifying the value proposition, refining the customer experience, enhancing the growth process, and creating scalability or sales.

Scale- Attempts to drive firm growth aggressively

Activities at this stage typically are: A Round financing, executive hires, process refinement, and scalability improvements.

(Stages 5 and 6 were not discussed)

It was found that 5-9 months were required during each step and that activities vary, somewhat, by type of startup. However, the top challenge during each of the four stages was Customer Acquisition; Spotlighting the need for creating clarity around the value proposition and the sales process.

This brings us the second important finding of the study, the four types of startups. I found this most interesting and helpful in understanding how business might have different needs and rates of growth. The four types of startups are:

1. The Atomizers
2. The Social Transformers
3. The Integrators
4. The Challengers

The Atomizers-Common characteristics: Customer focused, product centric, execute quickly, and often simply automate a manual process. Examples: Google, Dropbox, Zynga, and Hipmunk.

The Social Transformers-Common characteristics: self-service customer acquisition, winner take all markets, and typically create new ways for people to interact with others.

Examples: eBay, Skype, Craigslist, Twitter and YouTube.

The Integrators- Common characteristics: take innovations from Internet and rebuild and fit for smaller organizations, high certainty of success, gather leads from inside sales reps and smaller markets. Examples: Uservoice, GetSatisfaction and Flowtown.

The Challengers-Enterprise sales repeatable sales process, rigid markets, and high customer dependency. Examples: Oracle, MySQL, and Jive.

Some additional finding that may be even more important to those of you planning a business start up are:

1. Mentors are important. The study found that business start ups who sought and found mentors were able to raise 7 times more money than those who did not. It almost seem like a given that someone starting a business would seek and get all the advise they could.

2. Many Investors Invest Too Much. In fact the study found that investors put 2.3 times to much money in deals. Translation? Due Diligence!

3. Development is faster with co-founders. Founding teams of 2 were 3.6 times faster to reach scale stage.

4. Sales driven startups are 6.2 times more likely to reach scale stage than product driven businesses

5. Balanced founding teams are more likely to succeed. Team of technical, and business founder raise more money and reach scale stage quicker.

In all the study, provides a foundation to better evaluate startups by standardizing terms and classifying types of organizations there was much, much more to be gleaned for the Startup Genome project and we will follow-up with you to share the wealth of knowledge provided by the project. Stay tuned for more of the Startup Genome project.

Leading a Successful Start-up

There is no more precarious role than leading a start-up business. According to the latest research, seven of ten will fail in 10 years or less. But, since start-ups contribute most of the jobs in the United States and have done so for the last several years, we would all be well-served to understand what contributes to the success of those leading start-up businesses.

A recent study by Multiple Heath Systems (MHS), Toronto, Canada and the University of Toronto in which they compared Emotional Intelligence (EI) scores of top executives belonging to the Young Presidents Organization (YPO) against the general population revealed some interesting areas of differences between the two groups. Using an instrument that measures Emotional Intelligence (EI) known as the EQi, MHS and the University of Toronto found significant differences between the executives leading young companies and the normative population. The EQi measures 15 different subsets of individual traits and the Executive group was found to score substantially higher in 8 of the 15 subsets. Four of the greatest differences occurred in scores involving Empathy, Self Regard, Reality Testing and Problem Solving. Executives who possessed higher scores in these four areas were more likely to achieve higher levels of performance and profits which some would define as success.

Before we talk about the practical value of this data, lets review the meaning of each of these four attributes:

• Empathy - the ability to recognize, understand and appreciate the emotions, moods and feelings of others

• Self Regard - the ability to know and understand one's strengths and weaknesses

• Reality Testing - the ability to assess what is realistic and what is not

• Problem Solving - the ability to solve personal and interpersonal problems

Certainly, the "Fabulous Four," as I call them, almost look like common sense answers to the question; What skills does a person need to succeed in starting a business? Possibly they are, but having above average capacity in those four areas is somewhat rare and makes the leadership job much easier, somewhat like a 6'8" basketball player dunking the ball through a 10' high basket - not too challenging.

So why don't we just line up people with superior capacities in the "Fabulous Four" and have them start a business. We wish it were that simple. But, unfortunately, there are other dimensions to success, in starting a business. The "Fabulous Four" can enhance your leadership success but without the remaining two essentials: Passion and Luck start-up success may be elusive.

Having "Hair On Fire" passion for what you do is an essential ingredient to start-up success. You are not likely to have a successful start-up with out unparalleled Passion for the business. All that being said, we have found Passion to be the necessary fuel that keep a business going in spite of obstacles.

Few will ever acknowledge just plain luck as an ingredient for start-up success. Yes, a certain degree of luck, though not essential to success, is frequently a major part of it. Having started four new businesses, succeeded in two and failed in two, I can personally attest to luck, both good and bad, playing a role in the success and failure of a start-up.

Earlier, I spoke of the "practical value" of this information. Here it is, as practical as it will ever get. If you are wanting to maximize your success, as a leader of a small business start-up, build your skills in the "Fabulous Four" (Empathy, Self-Regard, Reality Testing and Problem Solving). Do so with Passion and hope for a little Luck. Good Luck, that is.

How to Hire and Keep a Motivated Sales Force

All organizations want motivated people. There is no place within an organization that motivation plays a bigger role than in the Sales Department. Possibly the single most important event within any organization is the sale. Businesses are sustained by sales. Some even say, “Without a sale, the business dies.” Regardless of where you might be around the recognition of the value of sales in your organization, one thing is certain: few businesses can exist without them.                                                                                
                                                                                                                            
Building a successful sales force has always been a prime objective of owners, leaders, managers and others. Whole libraries could be filled on the subject of sales and how to make them. My experience as been that almost every idea works. Some just work better than others. My purpose, in this brief article, is to focus on one important aspect of sales, motivation. What motivates someone to sell and do so in a superior way? How do you build and keep a highly motivated sales team?

Building and keeping a motivated sales force has long been a goal of businesses, everywhere. Yet, there is probably no department within any organization that experiences higher turnover of employees than the Sales Department. The reason for high turnover is, in my opinion, that many, including owners, CEOs, managers and supervisors believe sales to be an easy and simple task. They believe that anybody can become a salesperson. Nothing could be further from the truth. Sales and selling is a very complex task involving many different talents, skills, and events. As a result there are few tasks, more important to a business owner or CEO, than hiring and keeping a motivated sales force.

What is motivation anyway? Some say it is an emotion like happiness, sadness, fear or anger. I am not so sure. To be considered an emotion, there is one fundamental requirement; it cannot be generated without an external stimulus. An emotion is a chemical reaction within the body generated by external factors, like the death of a loved one or a surprise sighting of a rattlesnake at your feet. Take for instance the fear that would come from standing two feet away from a six foot, thousand pound brown bear, standing on its hind legs, mouth open, saliva dripping from incisors and roaring loudly. What you likely feel is fear and that is an emotion, in fact, one of the most common and one the body is “hardwired” to react to, with increased heart rate, blood pressure, the enlarging and constricting of blood vessels to increase the blood flow to the arms and legs to allow us to run faster or fight harder or both.

The emotion of fear that we experience, as our friend the bear drips saliva and makes a swath at us, with sharp claws exposed and missing us only a few inches, might motivate us to turn and run as fast as we can or grab a near by rock and throw it. Fear is the reason we are motivated to do something other than, just stand there. There is a difference here, isn't there?

Another example is the emotion of happiness that often motivates us to laugh or jump up and down excitedly. In other words, motivation is somehow the connection between the emotion and the act, not the emotion or the act itself. People are often motivated to act by emotions alone or they act out of a need to satisfy their core values, like security, comfort, hunger or a need for recognition. In any event, motivation is a highly sought after state and deserves some thought.

How does motivation play out in the making of a sale? If you believe that motivation is the stimulus to act and use the knowledge and skills we have, it would seem to play a very important role in the success or failure of any salesperson, for certain. It does seem that some people come to work motivated to do the best they can, most all the time, while other come to work with without any motivation, at all. The Gallup organization might call these workers engaged or disengaged, respectively. From their research, they estimate that nearly 70 percent of all employees are disengaged to one degree or another. The question is; Are those without motivation or those disengaged receptive to and capable of being motivated? The answer; some are and some are not.

It is my belief, built by more than just casual observation that motivation comes from only two sources: internal and external. It is possible to externally motivate someone temporarily, but lasting motivation comes only from within. External motivation, most often, comes from sources like family, work environment, rewards and promotions, etc. Internal motivation is most frequently self generated. The key to hiring and sustaining highly motivated sales people is largely dependent upon our ability to build an environment where the highly motivated people can be the best they can and being able to identify those that are highly motivated, hopefully before you hire them. Here are some tips that will deliver external motivation and aid in the identification of those that are internally motivated.

     1. Build an organization culture that encourages superior performance and removes as many obstacles to top performance as possible. Many organizations give no thought to culture, at all. An organization's culture can be uplifting or oppressive. Most, unfortunately, are oppressive and discourage superior performance by imposing too many rules and most importantly rewarding those that do not perform at a high level... If it is true, and I believe it is, that external motivation is only temporary and internal motivation can be grown or suppressed and destroyed, what can an organization do to encourage those already motivated, make certain they don't de-motivate any who are and possibly motivate some who are not? Answer: Build a culture that encourages superior performance, confirm with managers that they are responsible for growing their people and give them the coaching skills to do it. Insist that they use them.

     2. Benchmark sales positions in the organization so the organization has clarity about what the job needs in terms of skills, behavior, and values. Understand that internal motivation comes from values an individual needs to satisfy and on way to get clarity about the values satisfied by the job is to look to the successful sales people in that role to determine the needs they have that are being met by this job.

     3. Use some type of psychometric assessment to see beyond the resume and confirm job fit and the likelihood of internal motivation. Assessments measuring specifics such as what the individual values, how they behave and their emotional intelligence are great tools to help you make better hiring decisions.

     4. Make hiring managers expert at the critical part of their job, hiring superior people, putting them in the right job and coaching them to success. Many hiring managers have inadequate interviewing and coaching skills. Give them regular and intense training in the skill and art of interviewing, selection and coaching.

I do not want to imply that hiring a highly motivated sales team and keeping them motivated is an easy task. It is not. However, attention to these four tips will improve your sales results and your bottom line. Remember a superior performing salesperson will outperform a mediocre one 700 percent. That makes a little extra effort worthwhile and it just may make the difference between a highly successful organization and a mediocre one.

Entitlement Disrupts Workforce

Recently, I spoke to a wonderful group of Human Resource executives. The group from the Houston area known as the Bay Area Human Resources Management Association (BAHRMA) met to “sharpen their saws.” I was asked to participate and shared my thoughts on Strategic Performance, its value and how to get it.


During the presentation a young lady raised her hand to comment and told of a situation that echoes around our country, today; She told of an attitude of “Entitlement with which they struggle.”

The “Big E,” as we call it, is when employees express their belief that others and the organization to which they belong, are somehow blessed by their presence. Often there is no evidence supporting their right to a favored state, just a belief in their own minds that they, somehow, deserve special treatment, recognition, pay or all three.

She put it like this; “We are consistently faced with younger employees believing that we (older employees and the company) are somehow fortunate in our association with them.

They come to work late or miss deadlines and believe it to be Okay,” she says. “It seems, as if, they believe the organization should be thankful that they decided to come to work, at all.”

The Entitlement attitude seems to be more prevalent among younger employees. Our experience has been that many of the Generation Y employees do, somehow, believe that they have a right to a job. A belief, I support, at least in part. I believe that there is work for anyone who wants to work, not necessarily the work you may want, but work from which you can earn a living. That does, somewhat, differ from the Generation Y notion.

So, what can or should you do about an attitude of entitlement, whether it comes from Generation Y employees or elsewhere? We believe that corporate America is in control and if the attitude of Entitlement is an issue, in your company, you can do something about it. Here is what we recommend:



1. Clearly state expectations before you hire anyone.

2. Get agreement before you hire

3. Have a “Zero Tolerance Policy”

4. Operate with integrity



Many organizations complain about poor attitudes but shoot themselves in the foot by not being clear about the values of the organization, their expectations of the employee and enforcing their own rules. Organizations should know their values and clearly share them with potential employees, but few do, they should create a “Top Ten Reasons People Work for XYZ Corp.”, A Values Statement, and a clear, easy to read statement of expectations in the job a candidate is being asked to fill. Get them to sign and date those documents and keep them as a permanent record that the candidate acknowledged your expectation and agreed to them. That document should go in the employee file. That takes care of item 1 & 2, now lets talk about the rest.

Many organizations want people who have a great attitude, many do not, but it is their own fault. They continue to believe that they can put into someone something that is not there, hire someone that is marginal, and somehow expect superior performance. That seldom occurs. The key to having the right people and attitudes on your bus is hiring excellent people, in the first place and realizing we are all human and make mistakes, sometimes hiring the wrong person. When you hire someone who does not wish to adhere to something they agreed to before the hiring and obviously the wrong person for the job, fire them. That takes care of 3 & 4 above.

Applying these four simple rules will, I guarantee, diminish the number of employees that believe they are entitled to their jobs, but most importantly, send a clear message to the many people in your organization that you value their good work ethics and operate with integrity.

Leadership Vs. Followership

When asked, “What is a leader” Willie Nelson once said, “find a bunch of people walking in the same direction, walk real fast and get out in front of them.” While that is a humorous and even ridiculous definition of leadership, it is accurate, in its limited way.

American and American organizations might even think it disrespectful to a culture that nearly worships leaders, to talk about the need to be a good follower. Most of us were raised to respect and even be a leader.
Yet, most of the work in this country is not done by leaders. Less than 25% of the work in America is done by leaders. The rest? Well, “the rest” is done by that group that gets no respect, followers. American corporations spend millions of dollars each year on finding leader and then teaching them to be leaders when those they thought they found were not.
Few of us were ever taught to be good followers. Yet even the greatest of leaders were followers at one time and most, if not all, must be followers in their current leadership role. So, why do we devote so little attention to following? Could anything get done without a leader? I am not certain but that is what ‘self-directed teams” is all about. Could we all be better, better leaders, better followers, more satisfied and fulfilled if we were better followers?
I believe so. By being better followers we would be more efficient at getting 80 percent of the work that is done, done in a more efficient way. Than can’t be bad. And, if we learned to be better followers the leaders that emerged would be better and more efficient about the 25% of the work they do.
I think there are just a few important truths about followership that we should consider:

1. Not everyone can be a leader all of the time. If you are not the leader you can be one of two other things: a follower or a drag. If you were not the leader, for which one would you like to be remembered?

2. Followers are essential and leaders could not exist without followers, be humble.

3. Good followers don’t always become good leaders but good leaders were, at some point, good followers.

4. Good followers have two important traits: They can see the big picture and they like to see other people benefit from their work.

5. Good followers are good at giving feedback in a way that others, who need to hear, hear.

In all, there are just five essentials that, if remembered and implemented, would make you a better follower. If you want to be a part of a real high-performing team, as a leader or a follower, practice these five essentials and share them with others.

A Race Is On and You Are In It

If you work for a living, whether you like it or not, you are in a race and the competition is no push-over. To give you some idea about the scope of this race, China just became the world’s second largest economy; the number of people among India’s most intelligent is a greater number than the entire population of the United States and over one-half of the revenue of America’s Fortune 500 came from outside the U.S. the last two years. This is a wake-up call!

There is little we can do or even want to do about the globalization of the world’s economy but there is something we can do about how that globalization effects us. U.S. companies, that consider themselves international, fared well during 2009. All but 4 percent of the top companies earned profits. In fact they have created 1.4 million jobs, overseas. Those same 1.4 million jobs, had they remained in the U.S. would have lowered the unemployment rate to 8.9 percent instead of the 9.8 percent with which we currently struggle.
Don’t blame the companies for shipping jobs overseas because of cheap labor. Those companies are growing because of growing demand from countries like Brazil and China. The rapidly expanding middle classes of those countries are driving demand upward at an accelerating pace. The reason for that growing demand?
Growing productivity of the middle classes of those countries is driven by improved education and economic conditions. DuPont, which set the world on fire in the late 1930s with its invention or nylon and today, is still recognized as the world’s most innovative companies sells on one-third of its products in the U.S.
What’s good for American companies is not always good for Americans. DuPont’s workforce in the U.S., during the period 2005-2009, decreased by 9 percent, while increasing by 54 percent in Asia and Pacific countries. That is just the tip of the iceberg and economists worry that the growing trends will place further pressure on the American economy. American has fallen behind in the preparation of its young people to compete in today’s world.
What is our strategy? As best I can tell there is no strategy. Most of us and especially our politicians are to busy focusing on the short term to do anything that will have a lasting effect on the future.
Here is a three point strategy that is the beginning of the beginning and not certainly the total solution.

1.Appoint a non-partisan commission to study and recommend broad steps needed to prepare the next generation to compete in a global world. And maybe most importantly, be willing to take the recommended steps, even at personal costs.

2.Elect politicians that “see the light” and understand that the “ostrich head in the sand” approach to will not work. That legislation needs to be generated today to deal with the quality of U.S. education. This may mean but not be limited to the elimination of teaching unions.

3.Be prepared to make sacrifices to improve the future. An early priority might be to wean ourselves from the addiction we have to oil. Certainly sending billions of dollars, everyday, to people who don’t like us much is less than an effective.

In the final analysis, doing the same things over and over is not the solution. Let’s be innovative and proactive and call for all around us to do the same.

How Will You Live Your Dash?

Every year, about this time, as the new year rushes upon us, I am prompted to pull out a poem I saved a number of years ago titled "How Do You Live Your Dash?" by Linda Ellis.

The poem is about a symbol that appears on most every gravestone defining the period of time a person spent on this earth (1938 - 2010), for example. That period represents the time Don Meredith, who died recently had spent here, on earth. The numbers are not near as important as what the symbol between them, the dash, represents.
That little symbol embodies all the years he had to do good/bad, excel/fail or just "hangout." Each time I consider the "dash" I am reminded not to waste it.
I believe that much is served by humans spending time in reflection about the past and speculation about the future. But there is nothing better than to devote the present to "advancing the envelope," just a little bit everyday. How we use our 'Daily Dashtime" is the most important thing we do everyday. Reflecting on the past or speculating on the future is Okay, but living your dash today the most meaningful and powerful way to impact the future.
Dashtime is somewhat like manna that God provided the Isrealites in the wilderness. If you will recall, God told the them that manna would sustain them but they must gather and eat it everyday. They could not save it up for tomorrow, because it would spoil, unless it was the day before the sabbath and then they could gather extra for the sabbath Well, Dashtime is almost like that, it must be used, productively, today because we do not know what the future holds. Many a life has been sacrificed, opportunity missed, or victory lost because we waited until tomorrow to use our Dashtime.
It is good for me to be reminded that I must pay attention to the present. Do something today to make the world better than you found it when you woke this morning. It matters not how little that something is, if you do something positive everyday, the value accumulates.
So, consider your Dashtime today and everyday. It is a little like paying forward. Thank you Linda Ellis!

Stephen J. Blakesley, Managing Patner, GMS Talent L P ( http://www.gmstalent.com ) is an author and a speaker. His two, most recent books, "The Target-The Secret to Superior Performance" and Strategic Hiring - Tomorrow's Benefits today ( one of the top 50 business books of 2006 according to Business Book Review ) are top resources for business owners, mangers and C-Level executives. Stephen also hosts a radio show on Blog Talk Radio every week on Tuesday @ 5:30 CDT. To join us: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/sjb340 Ask us about our Superior Performance Events: sjb@gmstalent.com.

Knock Their Socks Off - Customer Service that Counts

Depending upon whose research you turn to, it can cost anywhere form 6 -10 times more to capture a new client than save an existing one. I don't know about you, but those stats get my attention. The cost of a new customer varies, widely, by industry, but any way you look at it, there is value in keeping as many customers as you can.

It sounds simple enough, but here is the problem. As many as 80 percent of your customers may tell you they are satisfied with you and your product but buy from someone else, anyway.  Whoa, how do you deal with that? If customers say they are satisfied but leave you anyway? I believe there are only two "real choices:" 1.) Don't worry about it and go on doing the same things you have always done, or 2.) Figure out how to be better than good.

You see, there are many good companies out there, delivering good customer service, but they are just like you and you are both throwing money down a "rat hole."

If the money you are spending on customer service is not deterring your customers from leaving you, you are wasting it. What is worse, if you are a businessman or business owner; spending money and not getting the results you want or spending no money and just accepting what comes? I believe that neither of those choices are ideally suited for business success. I encourage you to spend no money, in your business, that does not have a real good chance of putting distance between you and your competition.

Just to make my point, lets talk about the difference between, a satisfied customer and a customer that becomes an Apostle. If the numbers above (80% of satisfied customers leave anyway) are correct, you may want to consider a new customer service strategy. A strategy that creates apostles rather than satisfaction. You might be wondering; What is an apostle, anyway?

An apostle is someone who has seen the product, experienced the benefits of the product, and then tells other people about their experience.  So, if we look at the stages of customer loyalty it flows like this: buy it - like it - buy it again - tell others about the experience - keep buying it.
How valuable would that be? If you can see the value, here are a few things you can do to create more apostles among your customers:

1.    Communicate your commitment to "superior" customer service
2.    Recognize that you are not the one who delivers the service
3.    Give those who do a "track" to run on. Make it easy
4.    Hire people that are service oriented who can solve problems
5.    Give them the authority to serve and solve
6.    Teach everyone the value in listening and how to do it
7.    Give yourself and something extra away to those who have a problem

This is certainly not a comprehensive list. Work on those until you become an expert, then look for something else that will distance you from the competition.

Five Big Mistakes Hiring Managers Make and How to Avoid Them

One would think that the role of ‘Hiring Manager” within an organization would be a coveted role. Possibly it is, for those who are attracted to stress, but often it is shunned and endured. Acting as Hiring Manager is a high risk / high stress position within any organization. The predominate reason behind all the stress and risk is fear. Fear of making a mistake.

Hiring the wrong person for the job or hiring the right person for the wrong job. Often the fear is justified because the task of hiring is often looked upon as a secondary responsibility, and as a result, little or no attention is given to developing competency and expertise in the area. Here are five mistakes that Hiring Managers make that often lead to costly hiring mistakes and how you can avoid them.

1.     Faulty Job Descriptions

2.     Failure to Understand Competencies Driving Performance

3.     Failure to Communicate Expectations

4.     Failure to Assess the Candidate Psychometrically

5.     Faulty Interview Procedures

Help for Hiring

Faulty Job Descriptions: Most job descriptions I see are laden with prerequisites like the “3-5 years experience” or “good work ethics.” They are lengthy and seldom read. I find hiring managers putting job descriptions on electronic job boards that have to be trimmed back because they exceed the word limit imposed by the job board (usually around a 1000 words). Many hiring managers actually believe that applicants read their ads, when all the applicant really does is scan for possible matches to their wants and needs and ignore the rest.

The best Job Descriptions are the ones that get read. If they don’t get read, nothing else counts. We believe job descriptions should seldom exceed 250 words.  Two-hundred and fifty words make a one-page document. There is something magical about a one-page document. Advertisers will tell you that a one-page solicitation letter is more likely to get read than one with multiple pages. The same is true with job descriptions. Keep it short!

The most effective job descriptions are the ones that focus on outcomes and results. Many job descriptions that I see are vague wide ranging like the “operations manager will have excellent management skills.” A job description focused on outcomes and results would say “the operations manager will achieve a gross profit of 40 percent annually.” A description focused on outcomes and results will always be specific and will always be measurable. The benefit is two fold; the person in the job knows what the expectations are and the manager’s supervisor has an accountability tool and a coaching tool to help measure performance. I call this type of job description a Performance Based Job Description. It is a powerful tool in selection and productivity.

Failure to Understand Competencies Driving Performance : Job Fit is all about clearly defining the job and then understanding what attributes would need to be present for a person to be a superior performer in a job. You can not do the later without first clearly defining the job. Once you have defined the job and the outcomes expected you can begin to consider the attributes necessary to achieve the outcomes desired from the job.

A formal process of defining the candidate profile is called the Ideal Candidate Profile. It is a document that clearly describes what a candidate needs to have and how a candidate needs to be to be a superior performer in the job.

I have found the most effective means of communicating the picture is to provide a Desired and Essential grouping of competencies. The competencies can be divided into the to have type i.e. Education, Experience, and Special Skills and the to be type i.e. Emotional Intelligence, Values/Motivators and Behavior.  

Now the picture of the Ideal Candidate becomes someone who fits between the Desired and Essential attributes of Education, Experience, Special Skills, Emotional Intelligence, Values/Motivators and Behavior. With clarity provided from the Performance Based Job Description and the Ideal Candidate Profile you have the foundation to better hiring. No job should be filled without the creation of these two powerful selection tools.

Failure to Communicate Expectations: I find most hiring managers don’t concern themselves with expectations until they have filled the position. It is almost like they are saying “fill the position and worry about performance later” as if they could inject the new hire with talent after they are given the job. How can you hire someone to do a job and count on them to do it unless the expectations of the job are clear? The answer is you can’t. The old adage that says “if you don’t know where you are going you are not very likely to get there” is painfully true when it comes to hiring.

If you coordinate the job description with the job ad and reinforce the expectations at the beginning of the opening interview you have done everyone, candidate and organization, a big favor. I recommend that the performance expected be communicated and communicated and communicated. I recommend that hiring mangers ask for acknowledgement from a potential hire right up front in the opening interview. Here is how.

You have just met the candidate interviewing for the job you posted on Monster. The candidate has been vetted by a resume screen, assessment and a telephone interview and they are to meet the organization for the first time in an Opening Interview. This is how you open the interview:

“Hi Mary, my name is Steve and I am your contact today. Before we get into a question and answer time I want to refresh you memory about the expectations of the job. Here is the job description we sent to you earlier. Would you take a moment to read it? (she reads it) You say, “Tell me did you see anything there you don’t think you could do provided you had the right tools?” She says “no I didn’t.” “Great,” you say, “that is what I thought.” “Would just initial and date it? It will become part of your permanent interview file.” Then you proceed with the planned interview.

What has just happened? You have done several powerful things; Sent the message that your organization knows what it expects and respects the applicant to share that up front; Told the applicant how there performance will be judged and what is acceptable performance as well as superior performance and finally provided a coaching and accountability tool you can use to help the person be the best they can be in the future.  

Failure to Assess the Candidate Psychometrically: How do you see what you can’t see? With an assessment that measures the soft skills essential to superior performance but not readily apparent by observation in an interview.

Understanding what I call the “Three Great Rivers of Performance” and identifying their presence or absence in a candidate is a powerful selection tool. Those Rivers that feed into the lake of performance are what a person values, how a person behaves and what talents they have naturally.

There are only two ways we can determine the competency level one has in the three rivers; one is by observing performance and the other is by discovery through an accurate psychometric assessment. Most often we do not have the opportunity to observe a candidate in actual performance until after the hire and then it is too late if there are serious deficiencies.

There are many effective instruments that are sometimes better than observation so choose one and become expert in its use. A psychometric assessment system can be as much as one-third of the hiring process.

Faulty Interview Procedures: For some strange reason most hiring managers, if asked what part of their job they disliked the most, would say interviewing. That seems strange since people are an organization’s most important assets and interviewing is a major piece of the selection process. Still, there is an immense dislike of the interview by hiring managers. I believe I understand the reason and it is this: I am not trained and well prepared to do this job (interviewing). It is very important for me to make the right selection. It is part of my job but if I make the wrong decision, I get all the blame and may lose my job. All of that creates a stressful picture. If you do a good job at interviewing it is just your job and if you do a bad job it can cost you your job.

The biggest mistake hiring managers make in the interview process is tending to hire people like themselves and the greatest challenge hiring manager’s face is remaining objective throughout the interview process. The Performance Based Job Description and Ideal Candidate Profile can help but more is needed.

Most importantly, interview training for middle managers is a must. The hiring manager needs to know that the know more about the interview process than the candidate.

Preparing for the interview requires the interviewer to know what questions they are going to ask, ask them and most importantly listen to the answer and score the answers so that at the end each candidate is scored on their answers to the questions. A structure to the interview, such as, having an introductory script, predetermined questions that require more than yes or no answers are a powerful piece allowing the interviewer to focus on the answer by the candidate.

Behavioral style interview questions are all about asking questions that require more than one word answers. An example might be: “Tell me about a time when you had to admit that you made a mistake. What did you do? What was the outcome? What did you learn?” Becoming skillful in the use of what I call a hiring manager’s best friends; What? When? Where? Why? Who? And How? is a measure of competency in a manager. Each of these fiends helps to achieve the goal of listening eighty percent of the time and talking only twenty in an interview.

These behavioral style questions are not chosen at random but rather are a part of a planned discovery process, a process to discover if the candidate has and is using the talent required by the job.  Clearly the interview is a third of the hiring process.

Self-Image-Moving outside the box

The Self-Image is a critically important piece of the Self-Awareness pillar of Emotional Intelligence. Your Self-Image defines and limits almost everything you do. Self-Image is the gate-keeper, allowing access or denying access to your talents and ultimately to the achievement of your goals.
It makes no difference what the goal is, if it is not consistent with the image you hold of yourself, it is not going to happen.
A great picture of Self-Image can be illustrated by this little exercise:

1. Place a dot in the middle of a clean piece of paper
2. Make a dotted line box around the dot about one inch on each side
3. Make a solid lined box around the dot and smaller box, about five inches on each side.

Now the "dot" represents you, the small, dotted line box represents the image you have of yourself and the much larger, solid line box represents your potential (limited only by your physical limitations).
All too frequently we allow a negative or limiting self-image to limit our achievements.
Working to improve your Self-Image is fundamental to getting better. One of the best ways to improve your Self-Image is through self-talk. Two phrases demonstrate the value of self-talk. They are, "That's just me" and "I can be all I choose t be!" E.g. When confronted about being late for work you response is "I'm always late to everything", guess what, you will be. On the other hand if you talk to yourself as if your were known for arriving early because you believe in showing respect for other and the rules, you will move toward that goal and eventually it will become a new habit.
What is your Self-Image? Are you living in that little box without knowing the benefits outside the dotted lines. Build a Self-Image that expands the box.

Life Lessons from Bamboo

The fastest growing plant on the face of the earth is the Bamboo plant. At times its growth rate exceeds 39 inches an hour. It grows so fast that it often reaches its full height in just one growing season. Many species are monocarpic; they live their life, bloom and die. Along the way there are many unknowns, of course, just as in our own lives, but in the life of the bamboo plant lays a model for life from which, we can all learn.


I was in my garden yesterday doing some summer, clean up work and many of my Giant Zinnias were laying on the ground from the weight of the bloom and the rain from a recent rainstorm. The whole area they were in was looking pretty scruffy. I needed to “stake and tie them.”

In the coveted, shady corner of my garden I have bamboo growing and I frequently cut stalks and use them as stakes for tomatoes, roses and the like. I figured bamboo stakes would be ideal for this task and cut several. As I was cutting I thought about how useful the bamboo, in the corner of my garden had been, even though I received many warnings of the invasive nature of the plant and proclamations of an almost certain bamboo takeover if I planted it. Weighing the wisdom of the “plant gurus” and considering the damage the plant might do, I planted it anyway.

After living with like a “garden cancer” for years, today I read, in the Houston Chronicle, the story of a young man, David Carter, who was raising bamboo in Texas for a living. Always anxious to prove the experts wrong, my heart leaped as I read of how he had started this entrepreneurial experience to “push back” the growing landscape of cement in our cities and everywhere else you could imagine. He mentioned how much he admired the life cycle of the plant and how he related it to his own life. The bamboo lives its life, blooms and dies. How heroic a lifestyle is that he asked?

“Heroic lifestyle,” I thought. The world today needs some plain old heroes. I read on and as I read, I began to realize how right David was. There are great heroics in living a life, blooming (achieving your purpose) and dying. For over a full year the bamboo spends all its effort laying out a network of roots to support the later shoots that appear above ground, then the shoots grow quickly until they reach their full height, after years, sometimes as many as 80-100 years they bloom, then die.

Not a bad model for our lives. Here are a few thoughts I have about the lessen it teaches:

1. Lay down the root system


2. Bloom in glory


3. Die, knowing you have fulfilled your purpose

Laying Down the Roots: I wish I had been more patient and more aware as I laid my roots. I wish I had paid more attention to the need for careful consideration of what might come in the future. I wish I had given my roots more time to deepen and given more thought to their need for generating the bloom. I wish I had taken more time to grow-up!

Bloom in Glory: We all have a moment in life, an “ah ha experience,” where or purpose becomes clear and we are achieving it. That is what I call the “bloom” in life. My bloom came and went, as they all do.

I wish I had taken more time to enjoy its fragrance. One day the beauty of the bloom takes your breath away, the next day it is downhill. Blooms always seem to wilt too soon, but all must and all do. I wish I had taken more time to enjoy the bloom in my life. There are never too many. I hope for you a bloom of vivid color, entrancing fragrance and lasting presence.

Dying with Dignity: Nothing lives forever, everything lives and dies. Yet, far too little time is spent considering how we wish to die. We spend years considering how we should live, but often spend, only moments and sometimes no time at all, considering how we wish to die.

For me, I am going to be with my Lord, when I die, so I want to be ready (prayed up and forgiven) and I want to be presentable. I don‘t want any tubes attached to my arms or hanging out of my nose. I want to be clean shaven, hair slicked back and listening to my favorite song, “The Anchor Holds.” Oh, there is more to it than just that, but there is not enough time for all the details. I am praying and hoping that I will have the opportunity to leave with a commendation of having lived the life given to me, not perfect, but well - leaving behind the people I have touched and the places I have been, better than I found them.

Why not bamboo?

Win While Others Lose-A Formula for Success

Whether you can or you can't, believing that you can is more than 50 percent of the victory, far, far more!

1982 was not a good year in Houston, Texas or anywhere else, for that matter. I was in the insurance business at the time, about a third of the way through a 27 year career. Most of the Savings and Loans in the entire country and especially in Houston were either merged or confiscated or consolidated and run by the government for a several years.

Times were so bad; it seemed that most every real estate deal would fail. People were walking home mortgages right and left. Commercial developers were declaring bankruptcy in the droves. As and example, we were occupying space in a 7 story office building that was totally empty, for two years. Business was terrible and hope was something that few experienced.

The homeowners insurance market was suffering and that was being optimistic. Most of our 35 agents were in a survival mode. Everything they did was focused on hanging on the business they had and no, literally no effort was focused on acquiring new business. They believed that you could not sell homeowner's insurance, because prices were too high. This attitude was fueling an attitude of survival, rather than growth. No one was actively soliciting new homeowners business and guess what; no one was selling homeowners insurance.

That is, almost no one! No one except those agents that were new to the industry who did not know what older agent knew? Those agents fresh out of training that were anxious to build their agencies and their futures were selling homeowners insurance like it was going out of style. You see, they did not know that you could not sell homeowners insurance in this market and they were setting sales records. For the years beginning in 1982 and continuing through our leaving the industry in 1997 we led the entire company in homeowner's insurance sales.

The reason? We taught them to believe that they could achieve what they wanted and gave them the tools to do so. We kept them away, as best we could, from those people who believed they couldn't because of the times or the environment or both. We taught them the success formula:

E + R = O

O is for outcome, what ever outcome you hope to achieve from any E (event) you might encounter is determined by your R (response). We taught them that they were in control, not others, not the environment, not anything!

We taught them to be pro-active about their future and focus on what was necessary to achieve their goals and they did. They developed an attitude of success, not survival. They adopted an attitude of "I can instead of I can't." They believed they were winners and they were! Attitude is everything!

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Businesses Fail at an Alarming Rate

Eight of ten business fail. Eight of ten is breathtaking, to say the least. If it happens so often, why is business failure so painful? Possibly it is because most start-up businesses are a direct reflection of the founder/entrepreneur.
No one starts a business with a goal of failure. Everyone begins with visions of success. When a business fails it gobbles up all involved and takes them "down with the ship."
Perhaps, before we start a business, it would be important to consider why business fail. There are many, of course, but some of the more common are listed in the poll: 
http://polls.linkedin.com/p/94999/xxzyp  Please give us your opinion.
Thanks!

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Happiness Essential to Sales Success

In a recent study of one of the most successful sales teams anywhere, we discovered the importance of happiness in the sales process. We measured the Emotional Intelligence of this exceptional sales team on an individual basis. There were only 4 of 15 attributes, in which the members of this exceptional team score unusually high. Happiness was one of the four and while surprising, is ever so logical.
Stop and think about your buying experiences. How many times have you bought from someone who crying, frowning or pouting? None, Ill bet! For more on our study of Happiness, email us at info@gmstalent.com with the word Happiness in the subject line.