Do you work in an environment that encourages personal growth? I guess it is possible to write a whole book on this topic but for this blog post I want to keep it simple and only focus on one aspect and that is "your best effort". Are you giving your best effort in what you do on a day-to-day basis? Do you like/love your work/task so much that you try to do everything that you do to the best of your capabilities? This is key for your own development as a human being and the success of your company! Let's look at an example: Your manager asks you to prepare a presentation for the Senior Management Team. The topic is the optimization of the online configuration tools that your company offers on your website. There are probably a number of people that could provide valuable input for your presentation. As you go back and forth and collect feedback from the different people/teams your presentation gets better. At what point is it so good that you feel you can't make it any better? Keep in mind that you have only limited time to finish this task. When you can honestly say that you can't improve it any further (in the given time) than you did your best. It doesn't mean that this is perfect or that anyone else couldn't do it any better it means that this is the best that you could do in the given time. This is how you grow. You stretch yourself until it hurts somewhat. Once you get more comfortable with the challenge you stretch some more.
In order to grow you have to challenge yourself and yes you have to fail.
Failing is part of growing! You don't want to fail on key tasks and therefore it is important that your company provides you an opportunity to fail on smaller, less important tasks so that you get the learning experience without jeopardizing the key projects.
Remember as a kid when you started to learn to read and write? It takes time to learn these skills and if you stop challenging yourself you will stop to grow. This is a true lose/lose for yourself and your company. Therefore make sure that you are in an environment that encourages consistent growth! This is not a nice/feel good kind of position but it is one that allows you to grow as a human being.
So ask yourself : Do you give your best effort in everything you do consistently?
Showing posts with label Leadership. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Leadership. Show all posts
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Efficient Product Configuration and Pricing Tools and Processes
They are key for every efficient Sales Force. The less people you need to involve in a Sales Cycle the smoother the sales cycle can be. Sales Reps should be able to use Product Configuration and quoting tools without reading a 50 page document or going to a 5 day training class. If your environment requires additional teams to handle a product configuration or a quote you have room for improvement. Let's take it step by step. Before a Sales Rep ever gets into the situation where they have to use these tools they have to know the products they are selling. Therefore the focus for every company will be to train their sales force about their own product offering first. In some cases the product offering can become very complex (e.g. cars, computers) and so it would be challenging for even the best sales reps to memorize all the rules (e.g. sun roofs are only offered with cars above a certain $ value and in certain geographic areas). In addition to that almost all products become more customizable and hence the need for a configuration tool is only increasing going forward.
The (configuration) rules are continually changing and you want your sales force to foster good relationships with your customers and NOT to memorize all the rules because the sales objective is to increase the face-to-face time of your sales force with your customers. For e-Commerce this is obviously different. We'll address this in a future post.
Which sales tools (e.g. Salesforce.com, Siebel) you use is less important than the company culture and the support your sales operations team can provide.
If the Sales Support/Operations team is doing their job well it can open new exciting opportunities (for cross and upsell) for your Sales Force.
What does your Sales Team need to proactively address more customer needs/questions?
What is your sales cycle? How long does it usually take to prepare a quote in your industry? Are you selling online or do you meet your customers face-to-face? Do you use predominantly standard pricing or customer specific pricing? In any case you want to offer your customers as many possible value enhancing solutions as possible w/o becoming annoying. That is where the value of the Product Configuration and quoting tools can support your sales team. You want to guide your Sales Reps by giving them a powerful configuration and quote tool. If they never know about additional options they can't sell them.
Tools are important and there are a number of good tools out there. Nevertheless I think the company culture is more important than any specific tool.
What tools do you use? How is that working for you?
The (configuration) rules are continually changing and you want your sales force to foster good relationships with your customers and NOT to memorize all the rules because the sales objective is to increase the face-to-face time of your sales force with your customers. For e-Commerce this is obviously different. We'll address this in a future post.
Which sales tools (e.g. Salesforce.com, Siebel) you use is less important than the company culture and the support your sales operations team can provide.
If the Sales Support/Operations team is doing their job well it can open new exciting opportunities (for cross and upsell) for your Sales Force.
What does your Sales Team need to proactively address more customer needs/questions?
What is your sales cycle? How long does it usually take to prepare a quote in your industry? Are you selling online or do you meet your customers face-to-face? Do you use predominantly standard pricing or customer specific pricing? In any case you want to offer your customers as many possible value enhancing solutions as possible w/o becoming annoying. That is where the value of the Product Configuration and quoting tools can support your sales team. You want to guide your Sales Reps by giving them a powerful configuration and quote tool. If they never know about additional options they can't sell them.
Tools are important and there are a number of good tools out there. Nevertheless I think the company culture is more important than any specific tool.
What tools do you use? How is that working for you?
Saturday, May 14, 2011
Focus on your tasks!
There are many things to look out for to have a successful and gratifying business career. If we compare a business career to a game then your education (and relationships!) is the key to let you play the game and to start the game at a certain level (which in turn will decide, in most cases, where you will end up in your career).
Once you have the education and you're in a job you are ready to play the game but now it's a different game. It is different because now you don't want to get in now you want to get up or you want to have more freedom to make decisions or you want to be noticed or you want to be liked etc.
If you focus too much on what others do, how they do it and why they get what they get instead of focusing on your team and/or work tasks you have a good chance that you won't achieve anything. It is good and smart to learn what your leaders want and how they want to get things done but you don't let that interfere with the tasks you're working on. How do you work with your teams if you are a leader yourself?
When you have a task (e.g. improve the sales order turn-around-time from x hours to y hours) then you don't need to worry about Team ABC that works on Sales Compensation. If you question why that team has more budget, why some of their team members get promoted while you can't promote anyone or you don't get promoted yourself you focus on the wrong things! You have to focus on your task (improve the sales order turn around time). Learn how you can do it. Who can help you to do it? Communicate and network with the key players in that area and make sure that they understand what your team/you are doing to achieve that goal. An attitude that shows you want to reach that goal (with your team) without putting your team/yourself in the middle of the stage will help. Put all your effort into this and get the task done!
Notice that in every sport (e.g. basketball, soccer) the players are focused on the game! Yes, there are interesting things happening all around them. There may be thousand distractions but they are there to play their sport! Take the current NBA Playoffs, most players are pretty young and they manage NOT to be distracted. This is what makes them successful! They focus on what counts when it counts. Do the same thing for yourself in your job and focus on your tasks!
Once you have the education and you're in a job you are ready to play the game but now it's a different game. It is different because now you don't want to get in now you want to get up or you want to have more freedom to make decisions or you want to be noticed or you want to be liked etc.
If you focus too much on what others do, how they do it and why they get what they get instead of focusing on your team and/or work tasks you have a good chance that you won't achieve anything. It is good and smart to learn what your leaders want and how they want to get things done but you don't let that interfere with the tasks you're working on. How do you work with your teams if you are a leader yourself?
When you have a task (e.g. improve the sales order turn-around-time from x hours to y hours) then you don't need to worry about Team ABC that works on Sales Compensation. If you question why that team has more budget, why some of their team members get promoted while you can't promote anyone or you don't get promoted yourself you focus on the wrong things! You have to focus on your task (improve the sales order turn around time). Learn how you can do it. Who can help you to do it? Communicate and network with the key players in that area and make sure that they understand what your team/you are doing to achieve that goal. An attitude that shows you want to reach that goal (with your team) without putting your team/yourself in the middle of the stage will help. Put all your effort into this and get the task done!
Notice that in every sport (e.g. basketball, soccer) the players are focused on the game! Yes, there are interesting things happening all around them. There may be thousand distractions but they are there to play their sport! Take the current NBA Playoffs, most players are pretty young and they manage NOT to be distracted. This is what makes them successful! They focus on what counts when it counts. Do the same thing for yourself in your job and focus on your tasks!
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Challenge yourself!
As long as you feel very comfortable with the tasks that you do you don't grow. If you want to grow you have to challenge yourself. You should feel uncomfortable with new tasks on a regular basis because otherwise you've been there, done that. While it feels good to be comfortable with a certain task it doesn't help you to grow. There are many routine tasks that everyone needs to master in every job and they are good to build confidence but if you want to grow you have to leave this path on a regular basis.
In today's and tomorrow's workplace you have to keep learning/growing and if you want to have a successful career you have to do that while you are working on your relationship skills.
What do I mean by "feeling uncomfortable"? I mean for example that somebody might assign you a task that you feel is too much. You might think you can't do that but instead of looking for excuses or other ways to get out of it you actually sit down think about how you can approach the task. Who in your network can help you? How can they help you? What sources can you use to come up to speed? Don't accept a "no" from yourself. To make this work you have to be honest with yourself. For example if you know how to write a Software Program and somebody wants you to build a rocket you are in over your head. In this case the challenge is unrealistic! You should know yourself well enough to prevent these unrealistic to prevent unnecessary frustration. Now if somebody asks you, as a Software Programmer, to improve the performance of a critical program that somebody else has written in 2 weeks. Now that might be difficult, you might not have done that before but this is in your area of knowledge. All you need to be successful is determination and perseverance. Maybe you need others to help. The goal is to make it work and be responsible for it. No, you can't do everything yourself but you can be responsible for making it work. Take on this responsibility and grow. Don't wait for these tasks to be assigned to you. Look for them! Make sure you always have something that gives you an opportunity to grow.
You will gain much more self-confidence from these tasks than you get from the routine tasks you do today. The challenges of today are the routines of tomorrow.
In today's and tomorrow's workplace you have to keep learning/growing and if you want to have a successful career you have to do that while you are working on your relationship skills.
What do I mean by "feeling uncomfortable"? I mean for example that somebody might assign you a task that you feel is too much. You might think you can't do that but instead of looking for excuses or other ways to get out of it you actually sit down think about how you can approach the task. Who in your network can help you? How can they help you? What sources can you use to come up to speed? Don't accept a "no" from yourself. To make this work you have to be honest with yourself. For example if you know how to write a Software Program and somebody wants you to build a rocket you are in over your head. In this case the challenge is unrealistic! You should know yourself well enough to prevent these unrealistic to prevent unnecessary frustration. Now if somebody asks you, as a Software Programmer, to improve the performance of a critical program that somebody else has written in 2 weeks. Now that might be difficult, you might not have done that before but this is in your area of knowledge. All you need to be successful is determination and perseverance. Maybe you need others to help. The goal is to make it work and be responsible for it. No, you can't do everything yourself but you can be responsible for making it work. Take on this responsibility and grow. Don't wait for these tasks to be assigned to you. Look for them! Make sure you always have something that gives you an opportunity to grow.
You will gain much more self-confidence from these tasks than you get from the routine tasks you do today. The challenges of today are the routines of tomorrow.
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Communicating a plan
The communication of a plan is as important, if not more important, than the plan itself. It doesn't matter if we talk about a project plan, a business plan or any other plan. As long as you need other people to achieve your plan it is key to make sure others understand what you are trying to achieve and why they should be interested to help you. Note that this applies to everyone! Good communication is not limited to a specific audience.
When you communicate your plan make sure that you do that in the most interactive format. This means whenever possible do this face-to-face. If that isn't possible that doesn't mean it can't work it just means you have to work harder to get what you are looking for. Do not try to do this in writing though! The risk that you don't get your point across is too big. If a face-to-face isn't possible try a "Skype-Meeting". If that doesn't work either you can maybe try a phone meeting if you know the people very well. In any case I think the only really acceptable format for important meetings are face-to-face or maybe a Video/Audio ("Skype") meeting.
It is a good idea to handout notes or slides at the end of your meeting so that people remember exactly what you were saying.
Keep the following points in mind for your face-to-face meeting and for your notes/presentations
When you communicate your plan make sure that you do that in the most interactive format. This means whenever possible do this face-to-face. If that isn't possible that doesn't mean it can't work it just means you have to work harder to get what you are looking for. Do not try to do this in writing though! The risk that you don't get your point across is too big. If a face-to-face isn't possible try a "Skype-Meeting". If that doesn't work either you can maybe try a phone meeting if you know the people very well. In any case I think the only really acceptable format for important meetings are face-to-face or maybe a Video/Audio ("Skype") meeting.
It is a good idea to handout notes or slides at the end of your meeting so that people remember exactly what you were saying.
Keep the following points in mind for your face-to-face meeting and for your notes/presentations
- WHY
- Why do you want to achieve a specific goal?
- Keep in mind that people need to buy into this goal. Prepare the meeting and address critical questions as much as possible. Ask for help to come up with critical questions!
- Why should people be interested to help you? What is in it for them?
- If you want to achieve the maximum benefit you need people to own the goal. Make it their goal. Show them the benefit they get when they pursue/achieve this goal. Don't do this to manipulate people but to create a true win/win situation
- WHAT
- What is the goal?
- Can the goal be measured? How often will you measure it? Who will measure it?
- What do you need from the participants/team?
- WHO
- Who needs to provide what by when?
- WHEN
- When do you want/need to achieve your goal?
- How critical is it to achieve the goal/milestones?
- HOW:
- How will you measure the success?
- How do you know if you achieved the goal?
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Efficient Sales Force (sharing an idea)
How does an efficient Sales Force operate? This is a topic that could easily fill a couple of books. So I want to restrict my idea here to a very short list of tasks that I think a small to medium size Sales Force in the IT Industry should perform. Do they perform tasks like account planning, opportunity management, quote preparation etc. by themselves or do they have to have Support Personnel to do these tasks for them?
My answer is yes they should do most of these tasks themselves because it is beneficial for the Sales Team to be self reliant. It's also fosters a more dynamic culture. The less teams/people are involved in the Sales Process the less points of failure we have. This requires a good and clear partnership between the appropriate business and IT resources/departments.
Asking the Sales Force to perform more tasks by themselves requires the Sales Team to have an "allrounder" mindset. This is only possible when the tools and processes are manageable for one person. To find an environment where the system and process landscape is manageable by one person is more likely in newer and smaller companies. Example: If every product (Hardware, Software, Services) an IT company is selling can be quoted in one process and tool then one Sales Person needs to be trained (in <= 1 day excl. Product training) to use that tool and they are good to go. The good thing about this is that the Sales Reps feel responsible for these tasks. They "own" the process and tools and don't hide behind other teams. Many newer small to midsize company Sales Teams seem to be more self reliant than older/bigger companies.What I mean with self reliant is that the Sales Reps do more tasks themselves. Is that good or bad? Is this approach scaleable once the companies become bigger or not? How can this work for companies that have hundreds of systems and different systems in each part of the world? I don't have the answer and I don't pretent there is an easy solution but it is worth thinking about these and similar questions because the correct answer for your company could potentially yield large benefits.
Here is what I would consider an ideal example of a small to midsize Sales Force (assuming we are beyond the opportunity phase).
How can you make your Sales Force more efficient? Think about it! There are improvement opportunities in EVERY companies. What can YOU do in YOUR company today?
My answer is yes they should do most of these tasks themselves because it is beneficial for the Sales Team to be self reliant. It's also fosters a more dynamic culture. The less teams/people are involved in the Sales Process the less points of failure we have. This requires a good and clear partnership between the appropriate business and IT resources/departments.
Asking the Sales Force to perform more tasks by themselves requires the Sales Team to have an "allrounder" mindset. This is only possible when the tools and processes are manageable for one person. To find an environment where the system and process landscape is manageable by one person is more likely in newer and smaller companies. Example: If every product (Hardware, Software, Services) an IT company is selling can be quoted in one process and tool then one Sales Person needs to be trained (in <= 1 day excl. Product training) to use that tool and they are good to go. The good thing about this is that the Sales Reps feel responsible for these tasks. They "own" the process and tools and don't hide behind other teams. Many newer small to midsize company Sales Teams seem to be more self reliant than older/bigger companies.What I mean with self reliant is that the Sales Reps do more tasks themselves. Is that good or bad? Is this approach scaleable once the companies become bigger or not? How can this work for companies that have hundreds of systems and different systems in each part of the world? I don't have the answer and I don't pretent there is an easy solution but it is worth thinking about these and similar questions because the correct answer for your company could potentially yield large benefits.
Here is what I would consider an ideal example of a small to midsize Sales Force (assuming we are beyond the opportunity phase).
- Prepare the customer visit (determine what Customers to visit, determine products that these customers would benefit from, determine contacts at company etc.)
- Sales Rep uses one tool to access information
- What products at what price did we sell to the customer before?
- What competitor products are out there? How are they different from the products our company offers?
- Who is the contact person in that company?
- Is there any cross or up sell opportunity?
- special notes about company contacts (e.g. upcoming birthday, lunch/dinner preferences etc.)
- Go to the customer and build a mutually beneficial relationship
- Capture Opportunities (e.g. current issues with xyz ...customer might benefit from our product/service abc)
- Prepare a quote for your customer
- Sales Rep should be able to prepare one (preliminary) quote for all products in one system
- Configure complex products in configuration tool (e.g. SAP Variant Configuration, Big Machines etc.)
- Show cross and upsell opportunities
- Tools shows what products/services this customer bought from us before
- Determine VSOE compliant Price with applicable Discounts for customer (based on Sales Rep authorization levels)
- Show price on header/item level to Sales Rep (to determine potential discounts)
- If additional price approvals are needed a workflow routes it via email to the correct people
- Prepare customer presentable quote
- Turn the quote into an order
- typical ERP functionality (e.g. Credit Check, Global Trade Checks etc are performed)
- trigger sales compensation for Sales Reps that they can follow
How can you make your Sales Force more efficient? Think about it! There are improvement opportunities in EVERY companies. What can YOU do in YOUR company today?
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Complicated Systems and Training
Does your company have a complicated IT system environment? Let's look at an example, does your company have one system to create quotes and orders for your sales force worldwide or do you have a myriad of standalone systems, spreadsheets and processes that all need to be integrated? If you work for a multinational company you probably have different systems (some integrated and some are standalone) in different parts of the world (e.g. In North America you use one system for your Sales Force while you use another system for your team in Europe or Asia). The complexity gets even higher when various regional business and IT teams for these systems need to work together and agree on any changes. In this environment it is pretty obvious that a high quality training for your Sales Teams is key to being successful. Don't get me wrong the system complexity needs to be addressed (!) but that can't happen overnight in most cases and in the meantime you still have a business to run and therefore to make the best out of what you got.
Many systems have a a lot of functionality that most Sales Teams don't use. How do you train your Sales Force on the essential functions (while you work on getting better systems!) of your systems?
Does the Sales Force get appropriate product training? Do they know how you approach your customers? Do they know your systems and processes once the Sales Process starts? Can they create a quote or order themselves or do they need support from anyone?
In any case you should spend the time to put together a solid training schedule that every Sales Rep should go through. Yes, this is an investment and if it is done well it will pay back dividends. If you have a simpler system the training will be shorter and if you have a more complex system the training will be longer. Face-to-face meetings are the most efficient while you can use webinars or other audio/video options as alternatives. Because of budget concerns the cheaper options are mostly preferred but they require a different approach (e.g. an assessment at the end of the class). A good training includes a business case example in the system, a reference document that every particpant gets with the key lessons and a questionnaire at the end to evaluate the class and presenter. Once you have this all together you can bridge some system gaps and shortcomings until your systems catch up. Not ideal but practical.
Many systems have a a lot of functionality that most Sales Teams don't use. How do you train your Sales Force on the essential functions (while you work on getting better systems!) of your systems?
Does the Sales Force get appropriate product training? Do they know how you approach your customers? Do they know your systems and processes once the Sales Process starts? Can they create a quote or order themselves or do they need support from anyone?
In any case you should spend the time to put together a solid training schedule that every Sales Rep should go through. Yes, this is an investment and if it is done well it will pay back dividends. If you have a simpler system the training will be shorter and if you have a more complex system the training will be longer. Face-to-face meetings are the most efficient while you can use webinars or other audio/video options as alternatives. Because of budget concerns the cheaper options are mostly preferred but they require a different approach (e.g. an assessment at the end of the class). A good training includes a business case example in the system, a reference document that every particpant gets with the key lessons and a questionnaire at the end to evaluate the class and presenter. Once you have this all together you can bridge some system gaps and shortcomings until your systems catch up. Not ideal but practical.
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Executive Communications
What you have to keep in mind when you communicate with Executive and Senior Management is that they usually don't have a lot of time. What I mean by Executive and Senior Management is a manager that manages more than 100+ people. If you are not at the peer level with them you will have to schedule a meeting ahead of time with their Admin. When you schedule this meeting treat their Admin like you would treat the Executive or Senior Manager themselves! Explain clearly what the purpose of the meeting is. Why do you need to meet with them? What do you expect to get out of the meeting? How can the Executive or Senior Manager help? Don't ask for more time than you really need. These people are busy and if you ask for too much you might not get anything at all. So keep the meeting request to the minimum amount of time because in that case you might get a chance to present your case.
Expect that even the Admin might not be very patient and friendly. There are many people who would like to spend some time with these Managers so they might not always be as patient as you would like.
Once the meeting comes it can happen that the meeting is shorter than you expected. So if you have scheduled 30 minutes for your discussion, plan to finish it in 15min or less. Note that I mentioned discussion and not a PowerPoint slide presentation! If you have to have a Slide Deck than just use it to guide the conversation. Keep the slides to a minimum --> don't use any font size smaller than 14 (the bigger the better). Don't add more than 3 bullets on a slide etc. Test the communication (if possible) with someone before you have the real discussion! This will help you to improve your communication and to have a higher chance to get what you are looking for.
Make also sure that you don't present details! These people are used to work on a higher level and will not appreciate if you bring up topics that they don't understand. Their job is to connect the dots and to lead the organization in the right direction, not to understand each and every single dot in detail! This obviously means they can't afford to get lost in details. So don't go there! If they ask for it (and you should plan ahead of time for these potential questions) give them just as much information as they need but don't give in to the temptation to show off your Subject Matter Expert knowledge. Short, clear, precise and goal focused communication is the key to any success on that level.
Last but not least keep in mind who you are talking to and prepare accordingly. If it is a Finance person then they will most likely look for numbers to verify the information you're presenting.
Even though this list sounds probably somewhat long and frighting it is well worth the investment. If you get on the same page with an Executive or Senior Manager that can have career changing implications! So yes, it's tough but well worth the effort if you do it right. Put some effort in it and prepare these communciations well and they will pay off!.
Good luck with your Executive and Senior Management conversations.
Expect that even the Admin might not be very patient and friendly. There are many people who would like to spend some time with these Managers so they might not always be as patient as you would like.
Once the meeting comes it can happen that the meeting is shorter than you expected. So if you have scheduled 30 minutes for your discussion, plan to finish it in 15min or less. Note that I mentioned discussion and not a PowerPoint slide presentation! If you have to have a Slide Deck than just use it to guide the conversation. Keep the slides to a minimum --> don't use any font size smaller than 14 (the bigger the better). Don't add more than 3 bullets on a slide etc. Test the communication (if possible) with someone before you have the real discussion! This will help you to improve your communication and to have a higher chance to get what you are looking for.
Make also sure that you don't present details! These people are used to work on a higher level and will not appreciate if you bring up topics that they don't understand. Their job is to connect the dots and to lead the organization in the right direction, not to understand each and every single dot in detail! This obviously means they can't afford to get lost in details. So don't go there! If they ask for it (and you should plan ahead of time for these potential questions) give them just as much information as they need but don't give in to the temptation to show off your Subject Matter Expert knowledge. Short, clear, precise and goal focused communication is the key to any success on that level.
Last but not least keep in mind who you are talking to and prepare accordingly. If it is a Finance person then they will most likely look for numbers to verify the information you're presenting.
Even though this list sounds probably somewhat long and frighting it is well worth the investment. If you get on the same page with an Executive or Senior Manager that can have career changing implications! So yes, it's tough but well worth the effort if you do it right. Put some effort in it and prepare these communciations well and they will pay off!.
Good luck with your Executive and Senior Management conversations.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Stop complaining - start changing
It is easy to complain about a situation but it is much harder to actually do something to change that situation. For example: You might think that you are overdue for a promotion because you have a huge knowledge in your area of expertise, you actually work well with the decision makers in your area, you might even pursue some additional certifications, academic degrees or otherwise trying to improve your skills. Even though you do all these things you don't get the promotion you are looking for. In this case it is easy to complain for all the right reason BUT it doesn't change anything. Do you want to feel well for 10 minutes by getting someone to agree that this is an unfair situation or do you actually want to change the situation? If you really want to change than find out what is going wrong. Analyze your situation. Which person is responsible for promoting you? What do they value? Are you delivering what they are looking for? Do you communicate well to let them know what you do? Face these uneasy questions openly and ask your friends for honest feedback to learn what you can do to change a situation.
Monday, March 28, 2011
Get it done attitude needed
Have you ever been with a start up company or did you have your own company? If yes, you understand why I say we need more entrepeneurial minds to achieve real and lasting change. We need people that identify issues, have great ideas how to fix them and then an iron determination to get it done. Are you that someone?
Do you allow yourself to own issues and act on them or do you still wait for someone to tell you what to do?
You don't have to wait until somebody assigns you a task, you don't have to wait until somebody asks you to start working on something. If you have an idea how something (e.g. process, system, sales tactic) can be done better, own it and make sure that your team benefits from your ideas and work. Stop focusing on all the internal company workings (e.g. politics, power games) they will just distract you from achieving your goals. Instead of waiting for other people to lead, lead yourself.
Do you allow yourself to own issues and act on them or do you still wait for someone to tell you what to do?
You don't have to wait until somebody assigns you a task, you don't have to wait until somebody asks you to start working on something. If you have an idea how something (e.g. process, system, sales tactic) can be done better, own it and make sure that your team benefits from your ideas and work. Stop focusing on all the internal company workings (e.g. politics, power games) they will just distract you from achieving your goals. Instead of waiting for other people to lead, lead yourself.
Friday, March 25, 2011
Dare to be yourself at work!
Do you dare to be yourself at work? I see many people that struggle with that. Why is that? If we are not ourselves who are we? Are we just a summary of the good ideas and intentions we picked up from books, magazines, discussions with colleagues etc.? Or are we slaves to the opinions of our management chain?
If you are 100% dedicated to make your company successful because you are truly passionate about your work and your colleagues I don't see any reason why you shouldn't be yourself at work. In fact I consider it critically important that you are yourself at work how otherwise could you be really emotionally attached to the work you do?
If you are 100% dedicated to make your company successful because you are truly passionate about your work and your colleagues I don't see any reason why you shouldn't be yourself at work. In fact I consider it critically important that you are yourself at work how otherwise could you be really emotionally attached to the work you do?
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
In person meetings are important!
Face-to-face meetings are still critical in establishing successful business relationships. Today with all the distributed teams, available online tools and tight budgets that is not an easily justified point-of-view but I consider it still true. In person meetings are very different from communicating via SMS, phone, email, video conference, instant messenger etc. because it is more personal. When we sit opposite from each other and can see the whole person acting and reacting that allows us to see the other person much closer as if someone can hide behind technique. There are still enough opportunities to have misunderstandings but it's a little bit harder to hide something. Ask for face-to-face meetings when appropriate (e.g. at the beginning of a project, when you start working with new teams, before big decisions etc.).
Friday, March 11, 2011
You get what you reward
What do you want to achieve and how do you want to achieve that goal? In a Project were you need team members to work together closely you should strive to increase team work. You can do that by rewarding team work either with monetary or non-monetary rewards. Check this link to get some ideas.
Be very careful what rewards you use (single contributor or team rewards) because if you use the wrong rewards in a situation you can create quite a mess. For example if you hand out a MVP reward in the project mentioned above you will actively discourage team work and instead encourage single contributors to go after the reward. Your team might not share information or in the worst case share incorrect information in order to get the reward. One very important thing to keep in mind is really mean it when you reward single contributors or teams. Don't hand out "fake" rewards just because it is in the HR playbook. Employee's are not stupid and very much appreciate a honest reward.
Be very careful what rewards you use (single contributor or team rewards) because if you use the wrong rewards in a situation you can create quite a mess. For example if you hand out a MVP reward in the project mentioned above you will actively discourage team work and instead encourage single contributors to go after the reward. Your team might not share information or in the worst case share incorrect information in order to get the reward. One very important thing to keep in mind is really mean it when you reward single contributors or teams. Don't hand out "fake" rewards just because it is in the HR playbook. Employee's are not stupid and very much appreciate a honest reward.
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Goal Setting
Are you setting goals to feel good or do you actually try to achieve them? The feel good goals are something like a new year's resolution to eat healthier. For an organization it might be something like finally getting to work on a project that you know should have been done a long time ago but you never had the resources and time to do it.
You know you should do that or you know you want to do that but then again it is really hard to make the necessary permanent changes. Do you like Broccoli, carrots, salad and apples? Are you sure you can eat that every day and enjoy it? Are you committed to spend a considerable amount of time to find, try and shop for different recipes to make these dishes actually delicious? Or do you just like to talk about it with friends and colleagues how difficult it is to actually reach that goal? Maybe you already have an excuse in the back of your mind because you are not really committed to achieve what you say you want to achieve.
Talking and complaining about it doesn't get anything done and doesn't make you feel better (long term).
If you set a goal for yourself or your organization think hard (not necessarily long) about what is really important to you! Forget the feel good goals, because they will in most cases just waste your time, and focus on the goals that you are committed to achieve. Think not just about the goal itself but also about the time you spend to achieve that goal because you will spend a good amount of time to reach that goal.
You know you should do that or you know you want to do that but then again it is really hard to make the necessary permanent changes. Do you like Broccoli, carrots, salad and apples? Are you sure you can eat that every day and enjoy it? Are you committed to spend a considerable amount of time to find, try and shop for different recipes to make these dishes actually delicious? Or do you just like to talk about it with friends and colleagues how difficult it is to actually reach that goal? Maybe you already have an excuse in the back of your mind because you are not really committed to achieve what you say you want to achieve.
Talking and complaining about it doesn't get anything done and doesn't make you feel better (long term).
If you set a goal for yourself or your organization think hard (not necessarily long) about what is really important to you! Forget the feel good goals, because they will in most cases just waste your time, and focus on the goals that you are committed to achieve. Think not just about the goal itself but also about the time you spend to achieve that goal because you will spend a good amount of time to reach that goal.
Monday, March 7, 2011
Opportunities
Which of your business ideas presents the least risk and the most opportunity? This is something you should be watching out for on a regular basis. Listen when you communicate with others, really listen. See what data they are sharing, what they are talking about etc. If you get this feedback from a variety of stakeholders this will give you a good feeling for the biggest needs. Once you have the biggest needs (= opportunities) you know where to start. There are many opportunities for improvements in every field. What is it in your field? Where can you make a real, measurable impact? Watch out for it and make an impact!
Friday, March 4, 2011
Meeting the customer need
Are your projects focused on your customer needs or are they centered around internal process and system challenges or some other non-customer centric issues? Have you verified with the correct stakeholders that their perceived business problems are the correct problems to focus on?
Everything you do in a business environment should keep the customer benefit in mind. The customer should be the North Star of every business. There are many other goals that are important but they won't matter that much when you have no customers.
Schedule your time with that in mind and always remember how you can communicate effectively with the customer to show them what you do for them.
Everything you do in a business environment should keep the customer benefit in mind. The customer should be the North Star of every business. There are many other goals that are important but they won't matter that much when you have no customers.
Schedule your time with that in mind and always remember how you can communicate effectively with the customer to show them what you do for them.
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
The difference between Failure and Success
In many cases the difference between failure and success is just one more try. If a situation looks hopeless and you give up you have to decide if this is one of these situations or if it is the right thing to give up. It's not easy to say and only you know the right answer. When you try to reach an objective and fail you should change the approach though. Trying the same thing over and over and expecting different results is, according to Einstein, stupid. In any case not every objective is worth this kind of effort so think before you decide to reach an objective. Once you've decided that this objective is worth it and that you want to achieve it there should only be very few things (out of your control) that can stop you!
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Entrepeneur or Management freedom?
Do you believe that when you are your own boss that you don't have to work for someone else anymore? If you do that you should think again. Every entrepeneur is working for their customers. If the customers don't buy the products or services anymore there is no business. You might have more freedom with some of your decisions but you need your customers.
As a Manager (on whatever level) you work for whoever owns the company or the next level above you. In that case you might be less concerned with customers but you still have someone you are working for.
This will be the case for 99% of the population. Instead of fighting or denying this fact it is better to actively search situations where you can work for someone because you share the same values most of the time.
As a Manager (on whatever level) you work for whoever owns the company or the next level above you. In that case you might be less concerned with customers but you still have someone you are working for.
This will be the case for 99% of the population. Instead of fighting or denying this fact it is better to actively search situations where you can work for someone because you share the same values most of the time.
Friday, February 25, 2011
Relying on yourself
Isn't it amazing to look at all the business books that come out and give recommendations regarding change? I mean do all these people really have so much experience concerning change? Some authors are really great and worth listening to but many authors are less convincing and are basically a waste of time. While I think it is good to get as much information as possible from a number of different resources I think we also have to start relying on our own judgement again. Before you can and should rely on your own judgement you have to put in some serious effort like learning as much as possible about the topic at hand and you have to accept that you will never know everything about a topic. It can be tough when you think there is always someone out there with something better (e.g. education, judgement, success, connections, skills etc.). While in many cases there might be someone out there with something better that shouldn't stop you, after careful preparation, to rely on yourself.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Change is hard but rewarding
Who said change is easy? It is not! Have you ever tried to stop smoking or known someone who has tried? It is tough and many people fail! People want to stop but in many cases it is simply not working.
This applies to most big changes (e.g. move to a new place, start your first big project, start a new job) in your personal life as well as to big changes in your professional life. If these big changes would be so easy then everyone could do it easily.
One way to get through big changes is to decide upfront how strongly you want to achieve a goal and if your discipline is strong enough to actually do it. You really have to want that change and be ready to go the whole nine yards to achieve it. If you try to change without a real good reason and without much conviction you've already lost. Once you successfully mastered a big change it is very rewarding but you have to be willing to but in the effort to get there.
This applies to most big changes (e.g. move to a new place, start your first big project, start a new job) in your personal life as well as to big changes in your professional life. If these big changes would be so easy then everyone could do it easily.
One way to get through big changes is to decide upfront how strongly you want to achieve a goal and if your discipline is strong enough to actually do it. You really have to want that change and be ready to go the whole nine yards to achieve it. If you try to change without a real good reason and without much conviction you've already lost. Once you successfully mastered a big change it is very rewarding but you have to be willing to but in the effort to get there.
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