Leadership Skills for Business Success Part 2
Decisiveness
Decisiveness is an exercise in good judgment, affording well informed, fast and sound decisions when needed from a leader, but it is not to be confused with inflexibility. It’s often conspicuous, which sometimes makes it difficult for leaders to enforce their decisions comfortably. Everyone has some degree of fear of being liable for a conspicuous, albeit incorrect, decision.
However, the alternative is worse. Even though you are less conspicuous if you remain indecisive, the chances of facing more tragic consequences are higher and will be remembered by others much longer. Decisiveness is an important rule in leadership, the decisions you are willing to make will have a direct impact on how you’re accepted as a leader. Deciding by going with your gut feeling or intuition wouldn’t hurt either.
Purposefulness
Every business needs a vision to set its direction and every successful leader can tune into that vision to achieve success. Business books of yesteryears clearly advocate businesses using vision as a resource, but having a vision in the 21st Century may not be enough for today’s leaders. What may be more advantageous today is the ability to own a strong sense of purpose and the ability to convey this purposefulness to your employees and co-workers. Purposefulness can be more powerful than a vision because it shares the ambition of growing your business with others. Understanding what the real purpose behind the vision is will inspire others. Collaborative Skills Technology has opened up new avenues for communicating and working in today’s work force. Today’s business environment benefits greatly from a culture of collaboration within your business and across all departments, both internally and externally. The Internet makes this extremely easy to do at a very low cost.
Collaboration is a technique that can quickly add to your bottom line if you are able to develop a system where everyone can play their part in contributing ideas or increasing sales.
Innovate and Execute
Another advantage of creating a culture of collaboration is the constant exchange of innovative ideas within your organisation. To be a great leader, become the person that everyone approaches when they have a new idea or innovative approach to a problem.
Leadership means understanding that you don’t have to come up with all the ideas yourself; you can also nurture growth and innovation in others that will benefit everyone.
Leadership Skills for Business Success Part 1
Adaptability
As a leader, adaptability means reacting in an effective manner to shifting circumstances in your business environment. Everybody experiences adaptive challenges, but leaders are keen to resolve these issues with a carefully thought out plan of action. If there is one trait that every business leader needs most in today’s business environment, it is adaptability.
If adaptability is not your strongest asset, then hone your skills. Learn to accept difference as just that, difference, not a problem. Develop ways to anticipate problems and prepare backup plans to effectively cope with those problems. Keep an open mind and commit yourself to learning constantly, learning quickly and reacting accordingly. Adopt an approach of flexibility when faced with any situations that require adaptability.
Remember that if you design your work style around a plan that provides plenty of adaptability, you will be able to provide better support and leadership to your team or company. You’ll also be the person that others turn to for guidance when things change or an unexpected crisis arises. Lead by example, if you show them that you are adaptable, open-minded and flexible you’ll discover more opportunities opening up for you.
People Skills
The ability to observe people in your business. This gives you the insight needed to take the appropriate action required for the right result.
The ability to communicate, effectively. Contrary to popular belief, it is not easy to get ideas across to a group of people when attempting to make the right decision or reach a solution. A leader should be able to communicate effectively to everyone, not just some people, in order to be productive.
The ability to motivate gives you the leadership edge to get the best out of those who work for you or with you.
Developing better people skills, specifically in the areas highlighted above, helps you attain your business objectives much faster by working more productively with today’s very knowledgeable workforce. It is about genuinely connecting with those you work with and who work for you. When you connect well with others, you develop a trusting, productive relationship that benefits everyone.
Self Awareness Leaders who are aware of how they are perceived by others or how they impact the behaviour of others are more likely to succeed than those who are not self aware. Most of us are guilty of believing we are better than we really are because of intent. Unfortunately, living our lives on intent and assuming others can read our minds or instinctively understand us can be a recipe for disaster.Others can only judge us based on our behaviours, which can often lead to misunderstandings and miscommunication. You can not, as a leader, assume that everyone around you instinctively understands the “how and why” behind what you do. You need to practice self awareness in order to establish a more positive working relationship with your employees and co-workers.
Identify your personal strengths and weaknesses and then determine what you need to do to overcome them, whether it is explaining things more clearly, being more willing to compromise or developing better team-building skills. Remember, even if you don’t see your flaws, those around you do. If you are self aware, people will see that you are making the effort to overcome your faults, a very important trait of a great leader.
Sales Motivation and the Role of Leadership
Leadership is Motivation, the Leader is a Motivator
We’re not talking about the kind of motivator who arrives and excites everyone and then leaves. That is not motivation. Real motivation lasts longer than twenty-four hours. Real motivation is the key to effective leadership, and leadership is the key to effective motivation.
When organisations establish quotas for their sales teams, they should involve their sales people in the process of the setting of their targets. Effective sales managers give their teams, an overview of the full picture and what the company is trying to achieve. Then, they work with each person to establish individual targets that will meet or exceed the corporate objectives.
Every target must be specific and detailed, then, your people can visualise its outcome. Make the target important to the person who is responsible for achieving it, if not, they may lose interest, particularly if it is a longer term objective.
Targets should have a good chance of being achievable while still challenging the individual to push themselves beyond their existing comfort zone. Each target must be relevant to the main objective of the organisation and relevant to the overall success of the company. Set a time frame and deadline for each target and ensure the deadline is realistic but, at the same time, challenging.
Work with your team members to help them determine the targets that would be most appropriate for their development and growth and work with them to develop the appropriate action steps to achieve these targets and you will see a noticeable improvement in their performance. Communicate and tell your team what is happening, sales people are hungry for information and from my experience, can be trusted with company details. Unfortunately, too many corporations and their middle managers feel that people should only be given information that is relevant to their specific job. Keep them aware of the progress you are making in achieving your targets, people are naturally curious and want to know how they are doing. Do not reveal confidential information, but share information about the overall status of the company. If sales are down and you need your people to focus on generating new accounts or business then tell them. If costs are climbing then advise your employees that they need to be aware of their expenses.
Regular update meetings, email correspondence, broadcast voice mails are just some of the ways you can communicate with your team. Another effective method is through casual discussions. Communication must be clear and concise, employees want to know where they stand and, all but a few, want to do a good job. They want to know how, you, as their manager, view their performance. That’s why it is critical that you give them direction and feedback on a regular basis.
Experience has taught me that people will work harder for someone who praises them and recognises the effort they put into their work. Acknowledge their energy and performance, their effort and commitment, how hard they worked and how involved they were with it.Your sales people have a lot of knowledge and information and can often contribute valuable suggestions to improve the business. If you really want to create a team of highly motivated sales people take the time to listen to their comments and ideas. Foster an environment that encourages the open sharing of information. Great leaders are always open to new ideas and methods of improving business and some of the best ideas come from the customer facing employees.
This last point is the most important. If you want a highly motivated sales team, then you must lead by setting the example. You must demonstrate enthusiasm, energy, team cooperation, honesty, integrity and commitment. Treat people with respect and dignity, give them the tools to excel, grow and develop and encourage them to participate and get involved.
Ask them for feedback, listen to their comments, and act on suggestions that will help your business succeed. Set and communicate high standards, provide positive reinforcement when your team members perform and involve them. You will soon see a team that will do almost anything to help you succeed.
Providing Excellent Customer Service Part 2
Customers and clients are becoming increasingly disenchanted with the merely adequate. For them, extraordinary service is the rule, not the exception. Anything less and they’re happy to vote with their feet and their wallets.
For business success you need to help your business establish and maintain an ongoing climate of service excellence.
Share Information
If you run a retail business, business management tools, can be invaluable in tracking critical data, such as what items and services are selling particularly well. If you have that data, don’t keep it a state secret. Sharing the information with your employees lets them know what is hitting on all cylinders. It also helps them promote these products or services to customers. Sharing information with others is a really positive step. In other words, don’t keep critical customer information close to the chest. That holds true with businesses other than retail.
Customer Relationship Management, (CRM), software lets you share valuable information about clients and customers with your entire organization. Customer buying habits, particular needs, interests and other data can be stored in a central location and easily shared.
Share The Commitment.
Nothing can prove more destructive to a commitment to extraordinary service than management for whom the concept is little more than lip service. Walk the walk by buying into that commitment just as much as you hope your people will. Make sure you reward top performance. Invest the time and expense in any sort of training that may help employees carry out and maintain high performance standards.
Don’t forget yourself and others in the front office. Make sure that training takes in everyone, not just sales, marketing and other front line employees. Training is an important part of creating a lifelong culture for service excellence since it helps build an understanding of the concept of service. And that means a top-down commitment. Leadership should set the tone for the entire effort.
Don’t Expect Magic Overnight
Another potential hurdle to extraordinary service is the expectation that it’s like flicking a light switch, on it goes, and everything’s hunky dory.
The truth is, exceptional service takes time to take hold in an organisation, particularly one with an array of people and departments. Give it enough time. Review performance every four to six months. It is essential to stay the course so you can improve service ratings.
Expect Mistakes And React Accordingly
The road to top notch service is not without its bumps. Don’t pretend they are not there. Rather, make them a part of the journey by acknowledging a slip up and, in so doing, recommitting to extraordinary performance.
For example, if a customer receives the wrong item, don’t stop at making sure they get the right one. Let the customer know that you are sorry for the mistake and build their confidence that it will not happen again. When you apologise for problems and really listen, you build a relationship. Build customer loyalty, not just satisfaction.
© James Chapman Business Leader Coachinghttp://www.adversityovercome.com
Providing Excellent Customer Service Part 1
Customers and clients are becoming increasingly disenchanted with the merely adequate. For them, extraordinary service is the rule, not the exception. Anything less and they’re happy to vote with their feet and their wallets.
That makes extraordinary service necessary, not just desirable. And that, in turn, mandates a strategy to help ensure that your business matches that special service standard on a daily basis.
For business success you need to help your business establish and maintain an ongoing climate of service excellence.
Define What Extraordinary Really Means
It’s an easy term to toss about, but knowing what exceptional service entails is essential to establishing the procedures and the mindset with which to achieve it. So, delineate what extraordinary means, is it lower price? Keeping appointments on time or making certain that telephone service reps always say “please” and “thank you”?
By knowing precisely what is merely good enough, and what takes your business beyond that, you get a firm handle on what you need to do to hit that goal on a consistent basis.
That means calling a customer to let them know that the van they are expecting is going to arrive on time. “We pledge to arrive on time, in a clean shiny truck, with two friendly uniformed drivers,” but so can anyone.
What makes it unique is if the truck crew call the customer 15 minutes ahead of time, and let them know they are on time. This has a huge impact on the customer. Calling ahead sets exceptional expectations, even if they are running late, the customer appreciates the call in advance.
Ask If You Are Not Sure
Many companies may find it understandably difficult to genuinely pinpoint what extraordinary service really entails. So, do some legwork. Conduct focus groups with customers to see what they really value. Ask your complaints department, if you have one, to identify topics that are frequent targets of dissatisfaction.
Often, you may find extraordinary translates to a holistic grouping of issues, not just one product or service. Being extraordinary means offering someone a truly exceptional experience. The quality of something may be good, but it’s the overall experience that will really define customer loyalty.
Allow Your People To Be Extraordinary
Saying you would like to have extraordinary service and actually carrying it out is a tough nut without the necessary authority.
One of the biggest challenges of providing a consistently top-drawer performance is shifting conditions. What’s appropriate for one customer may not work with another.
For instance, one customer may be so dissatisfied that a partial refund may be in order. By contrast, other customers who are a bit less peeved may be happy with a problem solved without any sort of refund.
So, allow employees reasonable freedom of choice to read a situation and react accordingly. For instance, giving employees a budgetary allotment which they can use, as needed, to address refunds or other unexpected costs associated with giving customers the benefit of the doubt.
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© James Chapman http://technorati.com/tag/Business+Success
Business Processes and the Leadership Decisions
Medium to large corporate organisations are having to change their approach to business because of the demands of their most important Customers, especially if these Customers are Industry Leaders and operate globally. These Customers are only willing to do business with the companies that have effective Business Processes and demonstrate good Leadership Decisions.
If we look at what makes up the major component parts of an organisation, then we discover the following: Structures – People – Products – Systems – Information – Customers – Relationships and Knowledge. What connects all of these are the Business Processes, which are determined by Leadership Decisions.
All organisations use Business Processes to administer their companies, but careful analysis of the Business Processes, which connect the major component parts of an organisation, are necessary to determine their effectiveness and to see if they reflect good Leadership Decisions.
First let us take Structures – should they be Rigid, which will mean the company could be slow to act, or Flexible, allowing the company to be quick to respond to their Customers needs, or should they be Aligned with your Customer’s Structures, which will mean a more ‘Connected’ relationship and many mutual benefits.
The selection of your People – very careful consideration should be given to this activity and as to who should perform this function, the company’s human resources department, or an outside agency, or should the board of directors make the final decision, especially for Top Management positions, Customer Facing sales positions and Customer Service support positions.
And how do you decide on People payment – against what criteria, by Performance and measurable value to the company, by surveying your Customer’s and determining their Satisfaction with the People that your company provides to them, or with a Bonus for significantly overachieving, in the duties that your company has asked them to perform.
Then there is Product Selection – should your product portfolio be Innovative, which will mean a lot of investment in research, design, development and time to market, or a range of Standardised products that are of consistent high quality, or Specialist products that are influenced by your Customers requirements, or maybe even a mixture of all three.
What is the determination of Product Pricing – by the Volume that your Customers are forecasting to purchase, or by the current Turnover of sales with them, or list pricing with a Discount for their continuity of business.
And then we come to System Selection – the technological recommendations should be closely reviewed by top management to ensure close adherence to your company’s Business Processes and policies, and then selection of the most appropriate Systems by Value, Functionality, Availability and Security.
Information and data gathering – the oxygen of all serious business organisations, this can be with a dedicated Marketing Department project, or by careful usage of Internet research and by the many trusted Personal contacts that your company has established. All organisations forget, until they are reminded, that the biggest source of Information that they have is with the People that they have in their own company.
A very important Business Process and one that needs to be very firmly underpinned by your company’s Leadership Decisions, is the activity of Customer Selection – should they be determined by the Industry that they represent, or the Potential business that they may do, or the Past Spend that they have made. If there is not enough attention paid to this Business Process by your company’s Top Management, then the penalty will be in higher costs, lower profitability and loss of respected Customers who do not wish to be associated with your company’s choice of Customers Selected.
The choosing of Relationships is fundamental to your overall business success – do you choose, Good Customer Relationships that have mutual trust, Bad Customer Relationships that spend a lot with you, but don’t trust you and would easily go to your competitors, if you did not give them their discount, or Political Customers who you must have a relationship with because of who knows them high up in your company, even though they cause more trouble and effort for your business, which increases costs and inevitably spend much less with your company than they should do.
Last, but not least is Knowledge – the life blood of your organisation, there are many sources for the acquisition of Knowledge, but this needs to be accurate and accumulated from trusted sources such as the Knowledge that is provided by your Customers, gathered from within your respective Industry, and even from your Competition. Knowledge is an intangible product, but if you share it with your Customers it is seen as a sign of respect and gives your company the reputation of being an Industry Expert.
The Leadership Decisions are an integral part of each of the Business Processes and can make a huge difference to the success of an organisation and to the continued support of its shareholders, who decide on the ultimate longevity of any company.
© James Chapman Business Leader Coaching
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