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CHANGING FOR THE BETTER: Good Habits, Bad Habits, & New Things - #15

by Rick Baker
On Aug 22, 2012

Here's a link to the first 14 CHANGING FOR THE BETTER Thought Posts.

And here are links to other articles about Change: Making Change, You Want to Make Some Changes at Your Business, Change is Only Constructive When People are Comfortable, What Does Change Mean To You?, and Change or Die.

***

I write a lot about change. And, I read a lot about change. I do these things because when it comes to business change is pervasive, underestimated, ignored, and mishandled. And, those are just some of my mistakes.

Change is a topic worthy of life-long learning. Change affects every aspect of our lives. It is very personal, yet it defies being contained so it spreads from person to person and it affects one and all...in different ways.

A solid understanding of change, how it affects self, and how it affects others is an essential piece of leadership knowledge.

Without a good understanding of these aspects of change a leader is not and never will be much of a leader.

So, I study change. I select wisdom from various authors, scientists, leaders, and heroes and I do my best to understand that wisdom and use pieces of it to improve my understanding of change, how it affects me, how it affects the people I work with, and how it affects the people I serve.

Here is an excellent sample of such wisdom, an excerpt from John C. Maxwell's 'The 5 Levels of Leadership', (2011).

"Change in an organization is always a leadership issue. It takes a leader to create positive change. And the best way to start working as a change agent is the same as when trying to build a relationship. You need to find common ground. Any leader who wants to make changes is tempted to point out differences and try to convince others why change is needed. But that rarely works. Instead, focus on the similarities and build upon those. To get started, look for common ground. In the following areas:

  • Vision: when the vision is similar, you can bet that the people are standing together and they have the same view. If their vision is similar to yours, you all see it clearly, and everyone has a strong desire to see it come to fruition, you can probably work well together.
  • Values: It's difficult to travel with other very long if your values don’t align. Find out what others stand for and try to meet where you share the same standards.
  • Relationships: Great teams have people who are as committed to one another as they are to the vision. If you've done the work on level 2, you should already share common ground in this area.
  • Attitude: If you are going to get people to work together for positive change, their attitudes need to be positive and tenacious. If they're not, there will be trouble ahead.
  • Communication: For change to occur, communication must be open, honest and ongoing. When people are in the dark they start to speculate about what’s happening. And their assumptions are often wrong. Inform people so that everyone is on the same page."

 
Here are some links to Spirited Leaders' thoughts about: Vision, Values, Relationships, Attitude, & Communication.

 

Thought Tweet #548

by Rick Baker
On Aug 22, 2012

Thought Tweet #548 Evolution of business: it's about survival of those most adaptable...ensure your DNA contains imagination and insight.

 

The Thinking Behind The Tweet

Global commoditization is accelerating and it will cut deeply into both products and services. Only the most-adaptable [the most-creative and the most-innovative and the most-disciplined] businesses will survive and thrive.

Tags:

Change: Creating Positive Change | Thought Tweets

How To Develop Better Work Habits

by Rick Baker
On Aug 21, 2012
"A whopping 85 percent of us have had bosses who have tried but failed to get us to change in order to improve our performance."1
 
If you want to develop better work habits then you need to:
 
  1. Plan some baby-step changes...then take them 
  2. Shake it off when you make mistakes or stumble...and count on it - you will stumble...that's OK, in fact it is a necessary part of the learning and improving processes
  3. Spend a bit of time thinking about your mistakes with the view to understanding the lessons embedded in your stumbles...and getting to truly understand yourself: think about how you handle work-pressure/stress & strain; think about how you handle interpersonal differences; think about how you handle surprises; think about how you handle change [both good change and bad change].
  4. Pay attention to situations around you...think about how situations cause you to succeed or stumble...make sure you plan for them, or plan around them if that's the best route: avoid situations that enable/encourage/align with your bad work habits when that's possible; prepare strategies and tactics that help you manage situations that you struggle with but cannot avoid.
Link to a variety of Thought Posts about Changing Habits
 
Footnotes:
  1. Joseph Grenny, David Maxfield, Ron McMillan, & Al Switzler 'Change Any-Thing', (2011)
  2. You have some bad work habits. All of us do. And we all have choices. For work habits, we can:  wait for a rainy day to make change, or tackle them now...like a work leader must do. deny they exist, try to ignore them,hope they go away, 
  3. If you do not want to develop better work habits...think about what that means to you, to your co-workers, to your family...etc.

Selling is the horse that pulls the cart of business.

by Rick Baker
On Jul 31, 2012

This is the first time I have used a 3rd party quote as a title for a Thought Post.

"Selling is the horse that pulls the cart of business."

Philip Delves Broughton

'The Art of the Sale', (2012)

Why use that quote?

Because it is beyond crystal clear - the time has arrived for Canadian B2B people to double check to make sure strength exists in front of their business-carts

I have personally witnessed hundreds of situations where local, SouthWestern Ontario, businesses are struggling and failing to forecast or maintain let alone grow sales. 

The problem is beyond crystal clear, it is perfectly clear; there is much B2B sales discomfort around forecasting and performance; we need to improve our B2B sales performance, and we need to do it sooner rather than later.

Here's another quote that captures some of what I am thinking:

"Sales success today is much less about getting better at what you already know and much more about creating an ability to tackle what you don't know. In order to thrive in that world, you're going to have to build a sales organization - and a sales culture - that enables that kind of innovation activity. A world where effectiveness is elevated above efficiency."

Matthew Dixon & Brent Adamson

'The Challenger Sale - Taking Control of the Customer Conversation', (2012)

So what...quotes from recent books about selling: don't make sales-challenge mountains out of sales molehills and sales quotes!

Here's what!

Take a good close look at your business development function: is it keeping up with the times?

If it is - great...you are in the successful, leading-edge minority.

If it isn't - don't sweat it...just get at making some changes for the better

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tags:

Change: Creating Positive Change | Leaders' Thoughts | Sales

Repeating business errors: defying common sense

by Rick Baker
On Jul 12, 2012

If you see too many errors and repeated errors in your workplace, there likely are several causes at play...

  • information overload, overwhelmed & overworked feelings
  • poor communication, mixed-up & unclear messages
  • weak processes, insufficient discipline & misunderstanding of work steps 
  • unclear goals or lack of goals
  • lack of confidence in your company's ability to succeed
If you believe there are too many errors at your workplace then set aside time to fix that problem: some suggestions -
  • consider apparent causes...but also dig deeper to find root causes: most people have difficulty identifying the true causes of their errors and need help to get over their 'error filters'
  • consider individuals...but, of more importance, consider the various situations around the errors
  • good process helps people, so, remove ambiguity around routine aspects of work: as examples - have clear role descriptions, clear goals, clear & regular performance reviews
  • create a system for handling e-mail and phone communication...set some best-practice guidelines
  • create a system for problem solving: for example, P=2S+O
  • be clear about your expectations of accountability and follow-up regularly, implementing consequences
  • lead by example...make personal changes to illustrate you are serious...show the standard you desire to see in others
 

Tags:

Change: Creating Positive Change | Leaders' Thoughts

Thought Tweet #518

by Rick Baker
On Jul 11, 2012

Thought Tweet #518 The tighter we try to grip the status quo, the more it slips through our fingers.

 

The Thinking Behind The Tweet

Those who cling to old ways of doing business find times are tough and, for them, it ain't gonna get any better.

Tags:

Change: Creating Positive Change | Thought Tweets

Copyright © 2012. W.F.C (Rick) Baker. All Rights Reserved.