by Rick Baker
On Dec 16, 2010
Wikipedia provides the following “Big Five”
factors of personality:
Considering these “Big Five” factors of personality…
How would you describe your personality?
How would you describe the personalities of the key people at your company?
There are many tools for assessing personality. It seems to me they often make things much more complicated than necessary.
Here are some suggestions for a simpler way to assess other people’s personalities:
- Understand personalities will affect behaviour…so, behaviour provides some clues
- Understand situations will affect behaviour…so, check behaviour under a variety of situations
- Consider the “Big Five”…that’s a good starting point...and that may be enough
- Spend a bit of time learning about each of those “Big Five” [they are clusters]
- Learn how each of these “Big Five” factors show up in people’s behaviour
- Work at observing people’s behaviour
- Encourage people at your company to observe people’s behaviour
- Make it a priority to communicate about behaviour and personality
- Do not criticize what you believe to be people’s weaknesses
- Focus on people’s strengths
by Rick Baker
On Nov 26, 2010
Sales Tweet #95 Personality friction: too much is abrasive, too little is no connection, & the right amount brings warmth.
The Thinking Behind the Sales Tweet
OK. We admit it is a metaphor on the verge of being out of control.
But, we believe it is much better to accept the reality of people's personality differences than to do things like ‘mirror the Client’ to build rapport.
If we work at keeping our self-esteem high then we will tend to do the right things.
Our natural personality + high self-esteem + doing the right things = More Than Enough
by Rick Baker
On Oct 27, 2010
Seth Godin wrote a book titled 'ALL MARKETERS Tell Stories, The Underground Classic That Explains How Marketing Really Works - and Why Authenticity Is the Best Marketing of All'. The title was 'ALL MARKETERS ARE LIARS' and the words 'ARE LIARS' are crossed out and replaced with two handwritten words, 'Tell Stories'.
Yes, the revised cover of the book is catchy...
- ALL MARKETERS ARE LIARS (in big capital letters) catches our attention. It appeals to the side of us that is inundated with poor marketing messages.
- The handwritten 'Tell Stories' softens the blow and
- The subtitle about 'Authenticity being the Best Marketing of All' takes us to a really nice place
I think the book cover alone confirms Godin is worth reading.
At the inside of the front cover flap, we see Seth Godin's three essential questions for every marketer:
- "What's your story?"
- "Will the people who need to hear this story believe it?"
- "Is it true?"
"All marketers tell stories. And if they do it right, we believe them."
"And believing it makes it true."
The cover flap then states:
"But beware: if your stories are inauthentic, you cross the line from fib to fraud. Marketers fail when they are selfish and scurrilous, when they abuse the tools of their trade and make the world worse."
This is a great example of advice that passes the
Seek Simple test.
We should understand how experts such as Godin reach their conclusions and we should understand the real-life examples they provide to illustrate 'what works' and 'what doesn't work'.
That will allow us to make best use of the advice provided by experts.
That will allow us to train our people.
For example, we should train our marketers to ask Godin's three essential questions:
- "What's your story?"
- "Will the people who need to hear this story believe it?"
- "Is it true?"