Week 3 saw me back in my base office ready to take on the world. My confirmed client schedule well defined and a list of prospects looming on my whiteboard just waiting to be called.

Not a Natural Salesman

I am not a natural salesman. The thought of getting in front of someone to ask them for money in exchange for a product or service is not something I crave. Like most people of a technical background there is a small sense of fear that their rejection of my product or service is in fact a proxy for a rejection of me. However a funny thing happens when sales is no longer a hobby, no longer an intellectual curiosity to be viewed from the sidelines. No, now my business success rides on my ability to ask for the sale and close the deal.

It was funny how smoothly I was able to make the transition. Not that I am particularly good at it yet. Just that I had no problem doing it right away. In week three I would close two new coaching contracts that brought me ever closer to my monthly revenue target. It was exciting to do this and to gain the confidence that I could do this.

What did I learn?

Sales is a Relationship sport

Selling to someone you do not know is infinitely harder than doing so with someone who knows and trusts you. As a coach selling in a high trust context this is especially true. The maintenance of a trust based professional relationship cannot be over stressed. Since I had these in place my first several contracts in the first month were relatively straight forward to close. Not easy in any way just straight forward. It is clear to me that the development of a relationship will continue to be an important aspect of the process. Now it should also be said that referrals are a great proxy for an established relationship. When someone refers you, you enter into the sales discussion with the referrers credibility. If you maintain professionalism and passion for your service and can in fact meet the prospects needs you stand a very good chance of closing these deals as well.

Confidence in your service is crucial

Have you ever tried to represent something you did not quite believe in? You just can’t give it everything you are can you? Deep down you know that your integrity cannot fully support this thing and must hold back. Holding back comes through in our behaviors and ultimately in the confidence or lack thereof we demonstrate. No you must believe in what you are selling in order to be effective especially in the high trust environments of personal services. As a coach I have a deep confidence that I can help my clients. I have too many success stories to think otherwise. I am blessed with helping people to transform their lives into higher levels of productivity, capability and confidence. No for me I know that I know I can help my clients and my prospective clients. It is easy to be in front of them and discuss how the process can help them transform their lives.

GO ahead make a mistake or two most people will give you grace anyway

Okay many of you get this already and my technical brethren will appreciate this as I do, sometimes you need to just go and do something. The act of executing a “good enough” plan is infinitely more important than a “perfect plan” waiting to be executed. Sometimes we need to just go forth and DO, make mistakes, stumble a bit and figure things out. I have found that people have grace for you if you are not quite polished, not quite perfect. In fact it makes you more human more approachable more credible. Not that we should manipulate this to our benefit but whatever you do waiting until the perfect plan has been birthed is a strategy for FAILURE. Don’t fail, make mistakes learn and grow. Its good for the soul and the cash flow…

So these are my thoughts on week 3. Next post we talk about week four and closing out a month.

Certainly there are benefits to being an entrepreneur. Lets face it some of us just are not cut out to work for someone else. I spent over 23 years working as an employee. Yes there are benefits and many perks that make such a lifestyle alluring.

But at what price?

I come from good honest hard working middle class people. When I was growing up there was no other mindset than to be an “employee”. In fact the first career advice I received occurred as an early teenager when I was encouraged to find a J O B. You see generations of ancestors had been “employed” that is all they knew. You cannot get encouragement and wisdom on being an entrepreneur from perennial employee people, frankly they just don’t get it.

Despite my best efforts my early years as an employee were miserable. I did not quite fit in. I had my own ideas and people did not care about them. I found ways to cope and eventually thrive. At times I even found the path to excel but it always seemed short lived. Organizations have their own sense of consciousness and they don’t like people who would rather think and act their own way rather than conform.

Have you ever felt like you were a half step out of cadence and just couldn’t get into line?

I have and as I matured I came to value being unique and different more than trying to fit in. In fact it is this very uniqueness that I came to value most. In my late 30′s I began to seriously explore what this meant to me and came face to face with a concept I now love that of leadership. I discovered that I had no end of passion for leading and for learning how to lead better. In fact the more I discovered this gift, the better I got, the more quickly I was promoted. My last days as an “employee” were in a senior management position of general manager overseeing a facility with 150 employees and a $60M budget. But even this level of responsibility paled against the reflection of uniqueness, independence and personal growth I had come to demand of myself. And yet being the leader gave me the opportunity to be responsible and accountable for things. I really cherished this aspect of leadership.

Funny though that as I learned more and grew as a leader I found that my heart’s desire was to be a number 2 to a great leader for a cause I was sold out for. I had no real desire to be the number 1. No don’t have the ego or the stamina for that. My real desire is to make a great leader even greater, help them see beyond their own abilities. The problem is I never found that person, that one leader I wanted to follow. So I always seem to end up in the number 1 chair. I believe this is an exact match with why I now am so comfortable with the concept of being an entrepreneur. Since there is no one I currently want to follow, and I am very comfortable leading myself. Ultimately the decision to become an entrepreneur running my own business is about freedom, independence and leadership. There is no one to tell me when to arrive, when to attend, what to wear, what to think, what to say. I get to make all those choices. Some days I make excellent choices, others I blow it. Regardless I look in the mirror and remember something written by one of America’s founding fathers a few centuries ago

Entrepreneur’s Credo

I do not choose to be a common man,

It is my right to be uncommon … if I can,

I seek opportunity … not security.

I do not wish to be a kept citizen.

Humbled and dulled by having the

State look after me.

I want to take the calculated risk;

To dream and to build.

To fail and to succeed.

I refuse to barter incentive for a dole;

I prefer the challenges of life

To the guaranteed existence;

The thrill of fulfillment

To the stale calm of Utopia.

I will not trade freedom for beneficence

Nor my dignity for a handout

I will never cower before any master

Nor bend to any threat.

It is my heritage to stand erect.

Proud and unafraid;

To think and act for myself,

To enjoy the benefit of my creations

And to face the world boldly and say:

This, with God’s help, I have done

All this is what it means

To be an Entrepreneur.

With that Week 1 ends on a dignified note. Next up the travels and travails of week 2

Ron

If you have ever thought about having your own personal leadership coach, now is the time to act. For a limited time I will make my services available to the first 5 (five) Developing Leaders mailing list members who contact me at ronn dot hurst at gmail dot com.

My current clients have realized significant benefit from our coaching engagements. increased performance, improved interpersonal skills, greater leadership capacity. All are within your reach as well when you make the commitment to your personal growth.

For a limited time I am going to make it possible for you to realize the goal of you having your very own leadership coach. Imagine having a skilled leader with 17 years in the leadership trenches at your side facilitating, challenging and guiding you to greater performance. What would that be worth to your cause, your career, your family.

The initial consultation fee will be waived. This means you can check out how coaching can help you with virtually no risk. Agree that you want a coach and it gets better. We will give you a special introductory rate of $50 US per hour will be available for a 3 month period. This is far below my normal rate of $300 US /hour and is only available to mailing list subscribers. I can do this because I believe so strongly in the power of this coaching model I want to get the word out to our membership and give you the opportunity to benefit and grow your leadership capacity now. I know that once you see this model in action you will want more.

Do the math for less than $300 or $0.82 per day you can dramatically increase your leadership ability. This offer is worth over $2000 if you were paying full rate and it would be worthwhile at that rate.

Contact me soon this offer will close as soon as the 5 spots are taken.

Looking forward to our coaching engagement

Ron

Ideas the Enemy of Habit?  You know we all fall victim to the comfort of habit. When was the last time you changed your morning routine, your morning commute. Habit is a good thing for the basics of life yet it can also mask the opportunities that lie just beyond the immediacy of our vision. Ultimately our ability to see old things anew allows us the opportunity to ideate then create new futures. So the opportunity and the challenge is to consider how our habits get in the way of new ideas. The last thing a leader can afford is to accept the status quo and keep doing things the way they have always been done. That’s not leadership, that is a cop out. Check out his video, it makes the point so much more eloquently than I can http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZQyj4ywT2s&feature=player_embedded Lead and vision well Ron

Here is the original article if you care to read it for yourself

 The Coffee Cup As a Management Tool 

http://management.about.com/od/communication/a/CoffeeMgtTool05.htm

As I read it I agreed with the simplicity and wisdom it offered. The idea was that managers should leverage coffee breaks to spend time with key employees getting to know them. Great concept and one I practice regularly. In fact my local Starbucks a half mile from my plant regularly sees me there at least twice a week on a “coffee break”.

I know from experience that I am not in the majority here so I asked myself. How many managers are intentional about investing in their key team members? Do they have a process for this or is it random?

In my estimation not many.

The most important thing a manager can do is to invest in their relationships with team members. Yeah sure there are many other critical aspects to the job, not arguing that. What I believe is that by investing in relationships, a manager learns of potential problems before they erupt. They head off personnel issues before they happen. They  can work with and through their team to achieve objectives. After all the old saying goes: “people don’t care how much you know till they know how much you care” To influence someone you need to be in relationship with them.

So what does the article recommend that managers do? Get away from communication devices, the office etc, and listen to the person. They also offer some detail about the fact that it need not be coffee per se and to avoid alcohol. Pretty simple stuff, great advice. Not so easy to follow consistently in our wired world.

My Advice

 Learn to Listen. 

I wrote extensively about this in previous posts and on the mailing list leadership tip series. Sign up for the mailing list if you want to learn more.

 Get to Know them 

Distance may be handy if you have to fire someone but it is useless for leading them. People don’t have to like you but it sure makes leading them smoother. So find out what their children’s names are. What their favorite past time is etc. Do this not to be manipulative but to be an authentic leader who cares about their team.

 Laugh with them, Cry with them 

Maybe I am overstating the point here, but I don’t think so. People want to follow someone who cares about them as an unique, valuable person. They want to be challenged, they want to make a difference. Know who they are, share in their story, even let them know who you are.

Lead Well

Ron

Lets face it we live in the real world where there are people in our organization and not all of them are “A” players despite our best efforts. We inherit people from a previous manager with different performance measurement criteria, some people’s life goals change and work is not their priority and on it goes.

It is critical that in rating an employee we consider that the rating in their current role is different than in a management role. While some attributes overlap many do not. When considering who might be an “A” manager be certain that you evaluate the right criteria. A partial list should include; motivation, initiative, integrity, communication ability, leadership skill and management skill. Many of these factors may not be considered at the individual contributor level thereby making the judgment more difficult.

If you want to be certain do what leaders do. Give potential “A” players opportunities to shine long before the selection process takes place. Ask them to lead projects outside their normal duties, encourage them to find a mentor, suggest they take on a volunteer leadership role etc.

As you invest in your team and begin to see who has the drive and ability to lead in areas outside their normal framework you will soon discover who your next “A” manager should be. 

Lead well
–
Ron

I was writing to a group I lead the other day and summarized a leadership / facilitation technique I want to share with you. It’s called “Silence“

As leaders we must be sensitive to how various people engage in discussion. Resist the temptation to dominate the discussion when no one answers immediately. Sit in the silence once in a while and wait. It is completely reasonable to answer the question first every so often but we should avoid the temptation to do this frequently. Introverts will not speak up if you do this, the group will start to expect you to carry the discussion and will participate less often. Clearly this is not the outcome we want. We have to give the group room to work and contribute.

Try it sometime you will be surprised by this powerfully effective technique.

Lead / facilitate well

Maybe I am getting a bit tired of this series but this rule seems so obvious as to be silly. Yet is it?

The other day I was considering the management model of theory X versus theory Y. As a manager myself the first time I took the test I was so far Y as to think the test was a hoax. Then other students in my graduate class began to rationalize their X viewpoint. I was floored how could anyone be that brain dead. After all this is an age of enlightenment. America has learned its lesson, people want to be empowered engaged, trusted. People have altruistic reasons, meaning generating reasons to work… Right?!

Wrong! Some do yes and others show up for a paycheck and are content to do exactly what they are told and no more each day.

So leaders do give many a cause and others don’t pay attention. They just keep doing their job and no more staying out of the realm of meaning generation. This is not to say that a leader should just give up, no they should work all the harder at their influence skills and try to get everyone on board. There are times though that they must be realistic and lead the majority rather than the entirety.

ChallengeGo online and take the basic theory X versus Theory Y test. Here is one I found online here (THEORY X Y Test) for no cost. It is not perfect but will make the point.Take the test focusing on how you manage and what kind of style you have. If you are way on the X side you just may have discovered why it is such a frstration and chore to motivate employees to follow your vision.

Oh ya the standard clause. Neither theory is right or wrong it is simply a representation of how people respond to situations.

This is a model I have been working on for the past 5 years. Essentially the model reflects the simplicity and complexity that is leadership. A leader is not a cookie cutter set of skills and attributes that you collect like boy scout badges.

NO! leadership is a unique combination of attributes, unique to the individual leader. Leadership happens in a specific context that no two leaders face identically.

So to be a complete leader we must discover who we are as a person. Then we dig deeper to learn what our skills and potential leadership attributes are. We then leverage these to develop our own leadership perspective and voice.

This is the complete leader, a unique person who understands who they are and what the leadership context they face is. No two are alike, no two will reach their potential the same way.In the Complete Leader model we will discover how we best develop ourselves as leaders and leverage these aspects to their maximum.

The first two segments of the Complete Leader Model are nearing completion. Order your copy today!