Believe in the Unseen.

“You have to clearly create the business you want in your mind first. To be a Visionary, you have to see things that aren’t there yet and believe in things that haven’t happened yet.” – Larry Janesky, Book – ‘The Highest Calling’

Hiring Well

Hiring the wrong person is expensive and very time-consuming in the end.

Here are some rules – 

1)  The more of a hurry you are in to hire someone, the greater the chances of making a mistake.

2)  The more candidates you talk to, the greater the chance you will hire the right person.

3)  The more times you meet with a candidate and the more situations/places you meet with them in before you hire them, the greater the chances you will hire well.

The Best Candidates Already Have Jobs

Business is a competition for customers, and a competition for employees.

The best people already have jobs.  To get them to leave their current employer and come work for you, first answer this question – Why would they do that?

Create some good reasons.  It could take years, but then you are in a great position to get the people you need to propel your business forward.

Listening is powerful

Listening is pretty easy.  You don’t have to do anything outwardly.  Inwardly however you have to care about and want to know what the other person has to say, how they feel, and really understand them.

You know that what they have to say is the key to so much about moving forward to a more positive, prosperous future and improving the relationship with them.

Listening is ….

learning

the key to making the sale

the key to keeping the customer’s business

strategy

profitable

Do you ask questions and listen?  Do people know you as someone who wants to really know?

Listening is…

“The best way to persuade others is with your ears, by listening to them.” – Dean Rusk, Former US secretary of State

Listening is…

the ultimate mark of respect.

the basis for collaboration.

the heart and soul of engagement, kindness, and thoughtfulness.

the basis for true partnership and community.

the core of cross-functional communication.

the bedrock of joint ventures that last.

“Never miss a good chance to shut up.” – Will Rogers

MBWA

MBWA – Managing by wandering around.

The idea is that you can’t lead from your private office with the door closed, absorbed in voluminous financials and abstractions written in a strategic plan, sending emails all day.

You lead by walking around and interacting, learning and making a difference on the front lines of the work and from and with the people who are doing that work.

Get to the “coalface”.

Listen for what they are NOT saying.

What customers and employees say is one thing. But you have to listen to what they are NOT saying too.

What they are NOT saying may be more important.

Why don’t they say it?  They are being polite, they don’t like confrontation, they are afraid of retaliation, it’s easier to go somewhere else than argue, they feel you would not listen, they don’t want to embarrass you, etc.

What are your customers and employees NOT saying?

Psychology is far more important than technology

Technology can accelerate your progress, but don’t lose sight of how it makes you and others think and feel, short and long-term.

All products and services are to make people feel better.

Marketing, sales and delivery should not forget; your customers and employees are human after all.

Culture Trumps Strategy

If your culture stinks, you can’t execute on any strategy.

How is your culture?

Do people want to be there?  

Do they feel empowered, appreciated, and want to do their best?

Get on that.

"Impossible" things

“Alice laughed.  ‘There’s no use trying’, she said: ‘one can’t believe impossible things.’

‘I daresay you haven’t had much practice,’ said the Queen.

‘When I was your age, I always did it for half an hour a day.  Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.’

 – Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass; and what Alice found there