Business Coaching

Dealing With Emotional People

In my June edition of the Achievers Edge (Peter Thomson's monthly audio newsletter) was another very interesting feature from Nancy Slessenger about how to deal better with emotional people. I have written before about Nancy as an expert in how to deal with difficult people.

Nancy told two stories about people who have a strong connection to their emotions and both resonated with me. Some people think that coaches are very touchy-feely and while some are, I'm not. I am much more task focused and it seems that where problems start.

When an emotionally driven person runs into a task driven person you can very easily run into a stalemate situation with each person exaggerating their biases.

The Samaritans

The first story Nancy told was about the time when she had a very depressed person working in her team and other members of staff were concerned about the suicide risk. So Nancy decided to ring the Samaritans (UK helpline for the suicidally depressed) to find out how the process worked.

Nancy just wanted the facts and if possible to try to set up a meeting but the person the other end of the telephone was not interested in the task but wanted to know how Nancy felt about this situation. "I'm concerned but I am sure that everything will be OK if she can get some help."

"Yes but how do you really fee-eel?" came back the reply.  The Samaritan obviously thought that Nancy was doing the "A friend of mine... "routine. It didn't get anywhere because the more Nancy pushed for action (information), the more the other person believed that she was repressing her feelings and had to be forced to confront them.    

The Computer Bug

The second story concerns another member of Nancy's staff who was very reluctant to hand over an old computer to another member of staff so that she could have a new one. As Nancy pushed for action, she met resistance and heard excuses.

It was only when Nancy asked how she felt and suggested some emotions - upset, angry, worried - that the truth came out. She was worried because she hadn't fixed a computer bug and she was embarrassed to hand it over like this.

Nice Stories (Especially When Nancy Explains Them)

But what is the implication for us as managers and coaches.

If you are dealing with a task focused person, you need to stay on point and focus on the facts and what action needs to be taken.

If you are dealing with a feelings focused person, you have to find out how they are feeling and how those feelings are connected with what they are to do. Only then after you have recognised and dealt with the emotional issues can you move to agreeing future actions.

This was the third feature from Nancy Slessenger in the Achievers Edge but if you want to hear or read her ideas, there are some links on the dealing with difficult people page.

As a task driven person with a suspicion of touchy-feely ideas, she makes many of these  people issues fascinating.

What Else Was In The Achievers Edge

It was a great edition with:

1. Personal development - starting and completing projects
    
   
2. Guest interview - Richard Richardson, co-author of Marketing Judo (so good I ordered the book)
    
   
3. The edge of the month - how good are you in the last three feet?
    
   
4. Communication - tricks of sleight of voice
    
   
5. Control your life - never take a no from someone who can't say yes
    
   
6. Audio excerpt from Jim Rohn's "The Day The World Turns You Around"
   

If you would like to learn more about the Achievers Edge, Peter Thomson has made an excellent introductory offer - see Achievers Edge

To Your Success

Your Profit Coach

Paul Simister
Business coaching for customer focused entrepreneurs

Stop Fears Of A Recession Ruining Your Business

I have seen plenty of "how to survive the recession" type blog postings appear recently and even written a few myself (see Marketing In A Recession) but today I bring you something different. Rob Robson of Mental Skills Business Psychologists warns of the dangers that people may create their own self-fulfilling prophecy of doom.

Over to Rob and I love the cartoon of the turtle of fear although I do want to protect him:

With all of the talk of recession, it is only natural that it will focus minds on the threat that a downturn might have on your business, but beware of the effect that fear can have on performance.

At times like this, it is easy to get stuck in a mindset where all you are concerned with is the the consequences of recession and the survival of your business. If that happens, you may find that you create a climate where the focus narrows and people are:

• Fearful for their jobs
   
  
• Frightened to take risks
   
• Less open to new ideas and to change
   
• Less able to be creative, and
   
• Unable to have fun at work.

This 'self-fulfilling prophecy' may have negative consequences on performance and create a negative cycle that it is hard to escape from. Here are my suggestions for managing successfully during this time:

1. Clearly communicate your vision and strategy, and confidence that your strategy will lead to long-term success
    
   
2. Avoid projecting or pushing your fears 'down the line'
    
3. Focus on the controllables, and don't let people get carried away with events that are out of their control
    
4. Set out to 'buck the trend' and take sensible risks rather than trying to eliminate all risk from your business
    
5. Try to avoid shelving important change - after all you want to emerge from the recession in the best possible shape - in line with your strategic focus (and communicate how it all fits in)
    
6. Continue to recognise people's effort and contribution ("thank you" never goes amiss), and make sure they feel valued
    
7. Make sure that you find the time and space to allow people to have fun and enjoy their work (make sure you still celebrate success)
    

If, ultimately, your employees believe that you can steer them safely through difficult times, and you don't forget that work needs to be enjoyable, then you should be OK (even if you are privately petrified).

Rob Robson
Mental Skills Business Psychologists

Thanks Rob for letting me reprint your article.

"How Will This Affect Me?"

As an entrepreneur and business owner it is easy to think of the recession if it happens or the tough times that are inevitable, in terms of how you are affected. Whether your business is in a good shape to survive, whether your key customers are still good for their outstanding credit and whether the difficult times will affect your own personal standard of living.

After all if cuts have to be made in your business, most of the time it is the business owner who feels the pinch first.

But What About Your Team of Employees?

They watch the same gloomy TV news as you.

They know that prices are shooting up - higher petrol prices, higher mortgage costs, more expensive food.

While your employees don't know your detailed financial performance (hopefully you do) they see the activity levels in your business - whether the phone rings as often, whether as much normal is going out the door - and hear the rumours about customers, competitors and suppliers fighting for survival.

Your employees have plenty of reason to be worried how these tough times will affect them and their families and it affects the way they live their lives.

You Are The Boss, It's Time To Lead

So it is time for you to step up and show your leadership qualities.

Rob has identified seven steps for you to take to reassure your employees that the situation is under control and that they don't need to be overly concerned about their jobs.

As Rob explains, if you don't provide the leadership and reassurance your team needs to function effectively, you run the risk that their fears become a self-fulfilling prophecy and that hurts you even more than them.

Happy Customers Means You Need A Happy Team

Your business depends on keeping your customers more than satisfied with the service they receive. Your service depends on your team continuing to show that they care about the customer, that they mentally and emotionally involved in their jobs and committed to maintaining high standards.

It is said that the overwhelming reason why customers desert one supplier and move to another is because customers are treated in an apathetic way and they believe that the company does not care and is not interested.

You may hear that price is the cause of the defections from your business but independent research has shown that in 68% of occasions it is lack of customer interest and care. Price is just an easy excuse but if the relationship is good, happy customers will give you a chance to get close enough to the lower bid. They don't want to take risks for a small saving.

You may find it difficult to believe this "apathy to customers" reason so I'd like you to do a little exercise.

Think back to some of your purchases, for work or pleasure and look at why you switched suppliers.

Did you change accountants because the new one is 10% cheaper or because you became so frustrated with having to keep chasing the old accountants for information you needed to manage your business or meet your fiscal responsibilities?

Did you stop going to a regular restaurant because a new one opened up that was 15% cheaper or was it because a waiter was so rude and insolent you got mad?

Leading Your Team Out Of Depression

In economic terms we can't be sure what the future holds - tough times yes, recession maybe, depression I don't think so.

But your staff can ee all the signals and become extremely worried and depressed. Stress comes from uncertainty.

There is no avoiding it.

If the recession really bites, you may have to lose valuable members of your team. It's a horrible thing to have to do but it's often necessary to make tough decisions in tough times to protect the wellbeing of the majority.

As Mr Spock said in Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few."

So yes you have to be realistic, face up to issues and communicate honestly and fairly but the more you follow Rob's seven steps for managing your team during these tough times, the more likely it is that it will be your competitors and not you who have to make those difficult decisions.

To Your Success

Your Profit Coach

Paul Simister

Business coaching for customer focused entrepreneurs

Business Book Reviews 1

My new Business Books blog has been active in the first week with a combination of book reviews and book summary reviews.

Book Reviews

The Ultimate Sales Letter Dan Kennedy - 4.5 Stars

I review my well thumbed guide to copywriting by non nonsense copywriter Dan Kennedy.

Instant Team Building Bradley Sugars - 3 Stars

I plucked up courage to read another of Brad's Sugars books and this time it does have some good points but not enough to recommend it as a buy.

Ebooks

The Secrets Of Getting Your Bank Manager To Say Yes by Rob Warlow - 4.5 Stars

Excellent guide to convincing your bank manager to give you a loan.

Book Summaries

Success In Small Business Is A Laughing Matter Phil Johnson

Business advice with humour.

Creative Marketing Communications

Compendium of articles from the big creative agencies ran into my scepticism of brand advertising.

How To Close Every Sale Joe Girard

Hard nosed sales book from the Guinness Book of Records top salesman. Not for the squeamish who prefer consultative selling but ideal for those people tired of being walked over by prospects.

New Leaders Wanted Now Hiring Leandro Herrero

Thought-provoking and unusual book about leadership

Built To Last Jim Collins & Jerry Porras

Other people love it but I can't see what the fuss is about.

Articles

Michael Porter Five Forces Update

Latest Harvard Business Review article updates the classic with recent examples but the basic theory stays untouched.

Free Ebooks

Download these free ebooks while you have the chance as I intend to refresh the contents regularly.

Internet Marketers Guide To FREE Traffic, Sales and Profit by Raam Anand

Making A Living Off Your Blog by Terry Jett

AdSense Income Blueprint by Kurt Chrisler

To Your Success

Paul Simister

Your Profit Coach, business coaching for customer focused entrepreneurs

© Planning & Control Solutions Ltd 2007-2008 All Rights Reserved

Dealing With Difficult People

I was listening to a very interesting interview between Peter Thomson and Nancy Slessenger which explains how to deal with difficult people. The interview is part of Peter's Achievers Edge program.

Nancy Slessenger is founder of Vinehouse and an expert in helping you to manage your difficult people more effectively.

What Are Difficult People?

Most of us behave in normal ways and go through the usual social niceties. This means that most people we meet behave in the way that we expect and therefore it is easy to communicate and reach our mutual objectives.

Unfortunately some people don't behave within the normal rules and these are the difficult people.

Nancy Slessenger has identified various types of behaviour and given them names so we have the bullies, fusspots, cry babies, ditherers, rhinos and pessimists.

I bet as you read that list, just the names triggered thoughts of at least one person who you would think of as difficult - perhaps an employee who is driving you crazy by knocking back and resisting every good idea you have or a boss who is an aggressive bully.

The Cause Of The Difficult People Problem

There are methods to deal with all these types of people but you have to be prepared to adjust your behaviour to the other person's actions and your judgement of the underlying cause.

But first ask yourself whether you meet lots of difficult people all with the same behaviour traits.

Jasper Carrot, a UK comedian joked about his mother in law's bad driving. He admitted that she'd never had an accident but she'd seen hundreds.

So could it be that the way you respond is creating the problems with staff which are driving you crazy?

How Not to Deal With Difficult People

The easy way is to ignore the problem.

But that's the cowardly approach which condemns both sides to an unhappy relationship.

Yes it may be a bit scary or embarrassing to confront the problem.

Don't give in.

Just as a spoilt child whose harassed parents make another concession reinforce the undesired behaviour and increase future problems, don't reward your difficult employee by letting them have special treatment which other staff will resent.

Difficult People Could be Costing You A Fortune

If you have someone who is difficult, their continued poor behaviour could be a massive hidden cost when you take into all the ramifications of the ripple effects going out.

In the Peter Thomson / Nancy Slessenger interview, Nancy mentioned an NHS consultant who had caused an extra £1.5 million of costs in a five year period because he was so difficult, the hospital had to use agency staff to work with him.

Of course most of the time, the costs aren't anything like that high but it is easy to see how a difficult person can cause £5,000 to £10,000 of costs.

Suppose one of your better staff members is being secretly bullied by a manager and decides to leave. You then have the recruitment costs to pay for a replacement, all the time to reviews CVs and interview people. Then there is the time required for the induction process and the three months it takes for the person to learn to perform at an acceptable standard.

The bully may still be bullying so the cycle could start again.

What Can Be Done To Deal With Difficult People

Some people may be born "bad to the bone" but often the way we naturally communicate back, can make any problem worse.

I could tell you how important it is to try to talk to them and understand them. I could say that it is important that people understand their roles in what the organisation is trying to achieve. I can tell you to explain how their behaviour is causing problems for other people. I could tell you to ask them to explain why they act as they do.

But the right response depends on just which type of problems, your difficult people have.

That's where training from specialists like Nancy Slessenger come in.

You could use trial and error but this is definitely a situation where I would seek help from an expert.

It is much better to discover the subtle ways to influence their behaviour than to escalate the problem into a disciplinary dispute.

Helpful Resources To Deal With Difficult People

I was very impressed with how clearly Nancy Slessenger explained the issues in the Achievers Edge interview and Peter Thomson recommended her Understanding Misunderstanding book very highly.

That book doesn't seem to be available from Amazon but I have found:

Difficult People Made Easy(Book - Amazon.co.uk)    Dealing Effectively With Difficult PeopleDownloadable Audio - 56 minutesAmazon are confused on the attributionJust click and it is by Nancy Slessenger and Andy Gilbert

Follow the link if you want to find out more about Peter Thomson Achievers Edge - it is highly recommended as a monthly newsletter packed with interesting features.

Your Profit Coach

Paul Simister

Business coaching for customer focused entrepreneurs

© Planning & Control Solutions Ltd 2008 All Rights Reserved

Presentation Skills: How To Make Better Presentations - Free Report

I have a free 15 page report for you to improve your presentation skills called "How To Make Better Presentations" as part of my commitment to moving the free-line.

Have you always wanted to be the person who holds an audience spellbound as they listen with intense concentration while you make your case?

Or are you someone who avoids speaking in public whenever possible?

Do you know someone who is a hopeless presenter and needs to improve their skills?

How To Make Better Presentations will help.

Presentations Are Scary

In one study, public speaking was considered to be the scariest thing and death came third!

I admitted in my review of Michael Port's excellent book "Book Yourself Solid" that I was scared of talking to large groups of people and that this fear has held me back from promoting my business using speaking. It's a bit strange because I love small group training as it gives me a real buzz but the thought of moving from an audience of 10 to 100 or even 1,000 is just too much.

I had better point out that I didn't write How To Make Better Presentations but I have read it with great interest.

Your Presentation Skills May Be The Difference Between Success Or Failure

Whether you are presenting to existing customers, in a selling situation to prospective customers, to employees or to a networking group, your presentation skills could be the difference between success and failure.

The difference between people buying into your ideas or rejecting them out of hand.

What You Will Learn From "How To Make Better Presentations"

• The 4 types of presenter
   
• How the components of the communication process fit together
   
• The many different elements of speaking -it's not just what you say or how you say it
   
• How to prepare yourself for the audience
   
• 14 tips to help you talk to your audience including the 5Cs of platform excellence
   
• 6 tips for setting up your presentation
   
• 7 questions to ask yourself before you rush to prepare a multi-media presentation
   
• 9 general tips for presentation including how you can use colour to influence the mood of your
  audience
   
• How to use a microphone
   
• 11 tips for creating better computer presentations
   
• How to open your presentation and what you must avoid
   
• 6 tips on how to answer questions
   
• And much more

All You Have To Do To Receive "How To Make Better Presentations"...

...Is sign up below or if you are already one of my newsletter subscribers, the link will be sent out to you with the April 2008 Better Business Focus in about a week's time.

This is a double confirmation system because I hate spam as much as you do and I would hate to think that someone doesn't want my emails.

Name:

Email:

I will also send you my very popular email newsletter.

I usually email to my subscribers two or three times a month so this is not a subscription list that sends you two emails per day every day. My emails also include an unsubscribe option to take you off the list if you do not find the information invaluable for your business.

Isn't it time that you improved your presentation skills?

Update - Cure Your Public Speaking Fears

Thanks to Michael Port, author of Book Yourself Solid, I have posted links to two teleseminars Michael did on public speaking.

To Your Success

Your Profit Coach

Paul Simister

Business coaching for customer focused entrepreneurs

© Planning & Control Solutions Ltd 2007-2008 All Rights Reserved

The One Thing You Need To Know - Marcus Buckingham

The full title of this book by Marcus Buckingham is "The One Thing You Need To Know...About Great Managing, Great Leading and Sustained Individual Success."

I am sure you want to be a big personal and business success but did you know that most people don't achieve great success because they don't know where to focus their time, energy and resources?

Let's Exercise The Mind

Just take a pause from reading, grab a pen and paper and list down the FIVE areas you have to focus to make a major difference to your success.

Did you do it?

Did you discover anything from just listing down your five most important areas?

The next stage is to give yourself a mark out of ten. Be fair and don't claim to be at master level if you are not but don't be unduly harsh on yourself either.

Given that these are five areas that you need to have performed well, you have some decisions to make

1. If you are already very good at something, is it worth devoting the time and effort to get better? Can you get a level where you are recognised as the best in your geographical area, your country or even the world?
    
2. If you are average or poor at some activity, is it worth trying to improve, should you accept mediocre performance, should you outsource to a top quality (but expensive) specialist or should you outsource to someone better than you but a reasonable cost?

Your answers are inside you but I do know that how your spend your spend your time and focus your attention will play a very large role in determining your success.

The Book - "The One Thing You Need To Know"

The commentary on managers and leaders is unremarkable. Basically managers work through people while leaders inspire people based on the vision.

"The One Thing You Should Know" has some commonsense advice about managing - recruit good people, make sure that they understand what is required, give them feedback and show that you care about them.

In the leadership section, the recommendation is to build a rallying call around universal fears and needs:

1. Fear of death - need for security
    
2. Fear of being excluded - need to belong
    
3. Fear of the future - need for direction
    
4. Fear of chaos - need for control and authority
    
5. Fear of insignificance - need for respect.

Interesting but not too exciting.

What Is Exciting...

The Gallup Research shows that only 20% of people are in a role where they have a chance to do their best everyday.

That leaves a massive 80% of people who are set up, either by themselves if self employed or by their employers to struggle or maybe even fail.

The One Thing You Need To Know Is...

...  dramatic pause - can you feel the tension?

Drum roll please...

Discover what you don't like doing and stop doing it.

Simple and now you can see why I started with the little exercise.

Your success depends on you spending more time doing the things that you are good at and enjoy and spending less time doing the difficult, hard, nasty, tedious activities that you hate.

How Do You Find Your Strengths?

I have written before about the Kolbe A Index in Discover Your Strengths which Rich Schefren has packaged up with an explanatory video and called the Strengths Mastery Advantage.

I love it and see it as a missing link which is so easily ignored.

If you are like me before I did the test, there is a tendency to almost punish yourself.

You won't like admitting that there are some things that you are not very good at and you will feel guilty about delegating or outsourcing them. So you do them, you struggle, you get bored and you feel frustrated.

And then:

The crazy man takes over

You decide that you can't carry on like this so what do you do?

You buy a teach yourself book or course on the twisted logic that, if only you knew the inside secrets and tricks it would be so much easier and you would do a better job.

But you hate the subject so you find the book mind-numbingly boring. You can only read a few pages at a time. I've been know to fling the book across the room muttering "I'll never understand this ...."

For Crying Out Loud Stop!

It is such a simple rule.

Focus on your strengths and outsource your weaknesses.

You will be happier and much more successful.

Just take the Kolbe Index. I think you'll be amazed how your working habits and emotions now make much more sense.

My comments on "The One Thing You Need To Know" by Marcus Buckingham are based on the BusinessSummaries book summary. I may have done the book an injustice on the coverage of the management/leadership areas but I wanted to make sure that you received the key message LOUD and CLEAR.

To Your Success

Your Profit Coach

Paul Simister

Business coaching for customer focused entrepreneurs

100 Ways To Motivate Others - Steve Chandler & Scott Richardson

The latest book to be reviewed is "100 Ways To Motivate Others: How Great Leaders Can Produce Insane Results Without Driving People Crazy" by Steve Chandler and Scott Richardson.

The title of the book made me bristle, "ways to motivate others" indeed but I relaxed immediately when I got to number 1.

The first point is "to know where motivation comes from" and the book goes on to explain that "motivation comes from within. Good managers get people to motivate themselves."

Exactly right. You can't motivate people but you can alter the pay-offs from action (or inaction) so they motivate themselves. The remaining 99 tips tell you how to manage your team more successfully.

The approach taken is very much towards practical action rather than theories about motivation and personal drives.

In summary form, it is not a book to read in one sitting as it lists points with a very brief explanation. I suspect that the book fills out each action point with a little story or extra advice.

It is a good summary to change the way that you lead your employees and encourage them to take action. I recommend that you get download the summary and start implementing one tip a day and try to use it so that it becomes habit.

I rate this a 3 star review because I am happy to stay with the BusinessSummaries report and refer clients with team/leadership issues to the summary as a starting point. I suspect that some will then choose to buy the full book to gain more understanding of the practical tips.

To Your Success

Your Profit Coach

Paul Simister

Business coaching for customer focused entrepreneurs

If you like the idea of increasing your business skills and knowledge quickly and easily by reading summaries of the best business books, BusinessSummaries are highly recommended.

How To Set Big Hairy Audacious Goals (Vision or Mission)

I believe that every company needs to be working to achieve a vision or if you prefer, the business needs a clear sense of direction.

It is only by deciding where the business is heading, that you can be sure what is right and what is not right.

Many opportunities will be presented to you, some that are right and some that are wrong. Some that make great use of the company's skills, some that require skills that the business doesn't have and some that abuse your special capabilities.

The Benefits Of A Clear Vision

By having a clear vision or sense of direction, you can reject many of these opportunities immediately. This saves you the time and energy that would have been used to review each opportunity in more detail. But without that vision, every opportunity looks worthy of serious consideration until you prove otherwise.

There are two sayings that are relevant:

1. "If you don't know where you are going, any road will do" - you don't have a framework for deciding which is right for you and which is wrong.
   
2. "The man who chases two rabbits catches neither" - your time, energy and resources are limited and time spent looking at "wrong opportunities" could be much better spent taking action to move you towards your vision.

Put Your Vision In Writing

I am a believer in capturing your thoughts in writing and this theme will regularly occur in these articles.

You mind plays funny tricks and you can't remember accurately. You don't notice subtle changes in your thinking and your "mental vision" can be adapted to chase opportunities.

If it is a conscious decision to change your vision, there is no problem but too often, an opportunity mindset can adapt and be used to justify "chasing two rabbits." When your vision is recorded in black and white, you have a constant reference point and you have to make a clear decision to update your vision.

Recording your major goals in writing also helps you to communicate consistently to your team members. The impact of saying different things to different people is reduced because the written vision is recorded for everyone to refer back to.

The Difference Between Vision & Mission

Some writers and managers use vision and mission interchangeably, while others assign precise definitions to each. I don't have a strong preference but believe that a clear sense of direction is an essential element in business success.

For the record, my interpretation is:

• A vision is a visual representation of a desired future state you have for your business or life. A vision for your safari holiday could be a mental image of you in khaki sitting in a Land Rover watching three cheetah cubs play tag while their proud Mum sits and watches.
   
  
• A mission is your sense of purpose. In the safari holiday example, your mission could be to have a great time, completely relax and see plenty of animals.

There is a difference. For me, a vision appeals to the emotional mind while a mission appeals to the logical mind.

I Thought Vision And Mission Statements Had Developed A Bad Reputation

There is no doubt that vision statements, mission statements and value statements (what we stand for and the rules we follow) have been abused by senior management going through the motions and producing a bland, uninspiring statement.

• "Our mission is to be the best in our industry."
   
• "Our mission is to make first quartile financial returns."
   
  
• "Our mission is to be our customers first choice while making an excellent profit."

They don't cut it do they? While each is worthy they don't say anything unique or special about the company. They could apply to any business anywhere.

Big Hairy Audacious Goals

To help businesses produce better, more inspiring and more specific statements, various models have been produced. One of these has been developed by James Collins and Jerry Porras. I first became aware of it from an article in the Harvard Business Review although it later became a central part of their best selling book "Built to Last."

They argued that the best vision statements are split into two sections:

• Core ideology - what the business really stands for.
   
  
• The envisioned future.

It is in the envisioned future that the Big Hairy Audacious Goals (BHAGs) come into their own. This is such a powerful, demanding and compelling goal that it challenges the business to upgrade its performance. A great example is John Kennedy's declaration to land a man on the Moon and bring him back to Earth safely.

If you want to know more about Big Hairy Audacious Goals and the Collins and Porras vision model, download the report from this link.

Corporate Vision and Big Hairy Audacious Goals

To Your Success

Your Profit Coach

Paul Simister

Business coaching for customer focused entrepreneurs

Discover Your Strengths: Strengths Mastery Advantage - Kolbe A Index

Have you noticed that you are good at some things but bad at others?

Have you seen that some activities come naturally and are so easy but other tasks are a constant struggle?

Have you ever wondered how these "doing or action" strengths impact on the way that you work and earn your living?

If so have you deliberately chosen to work with and emphasise your strengths rather than wasting time and effort trying to adapt to or improve your weaknesses?

Sorry.

That is a lot of questions to start with but I wanted to get you thinking about what you do, what you enjoy doing and you are good at and what you hate doing.

Assessing Your Thinking - Cognitive Assessments

You will be familiar with the ways to assess your ability to think clearly.

There are all the exams we do as we work towards our final qualifications. To some extent success depends on how hard we work at a subject, how much we like it and how well we are taught.

IQ tests were developed to test our ability with numbers, words and shapes so that intelligence could be assessed once a basic level of reading,writing and arithmetic skills had been learnt.

Assessing Your Feeling & Emotions - Affective Assessments

There are various personality tests and the Myers-Briggs test is probably the most famous.

This is based on Jung's psychological types that looks at your personality along four scales:

• Extrovert to Introvert
   
• Sensing to iNuition
   
• Thinking to Feeling
   
• Judging to Perceiving

Based on the test results, you may be classified as an ESTJ or an INFP or one of the other 14 combinations.

See Wikipedia for many more details on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.

Assessing Your Doing - The Way That You Work - Conative Assessments

This is a new one on me and I have been introduced to it by Rich Schefren who is a big believer in the assessing your working strengths and then designing your working life around your strengths.

I first became aware of it through the Business Growth System coaching but I ignored the opportunity to do the test.

I am sceptical about these things from my experience with the personality tests. I always think there is a danger that you answer based on who you want to be.

When I bought the Business Acceleration Program before Christmas I was given another opportunity to take the test and this time I did.

Before I say too much more, I should repeat that I was sceptical but I came out with a score of 8-4-5-2 and this is my overall result:

"Congratulations Paul,

Your Kolbe A Index result shows you are excellent at making comparisons, documenting information and defining priorities. You can be counted on to research historical details and become an expert in areas of special interest."

Now I think that's pretty accurate and I suspect that it may be the conclusion you have reached if you are a regular reader of my blog.

Discover Your Working Strengths

The Kolbe A Index looks at how you act along four different scales:

• Fact Finder - how you gather and share information.
   
• Follow Through - the way you deal with, organise and sort information>
   
• Quick Start - your approach to risk and uncertainty - and whether you stay with what works or experiment to see what happens.
   
• Implementor - the way we handle things literally from imaging results and thinking conceptually at one extreme to having to touch things to believe it.

Now my 8-4-5-2 score is hopefully starting to make sense.

The 8 on gathering and sharing information shows that I have a particular strength in acquiring, analysing, reviewing and sharing information. While I have written before about my desire to see the big picture before I dive into the detail, I love learning the detail and building up my knowledge.

The next two scores were in the middle, so I'm pretty balanced there.

Finally the last score - bad name as it doesn't really relate to implementing - shows that I am no good at mechanical problems and repairs. I can see things conceptually, imagine what can happen and get help.

Interestingly, there are no bad scores. Everything is a strength in particular situations and I certainly felt good about myself when I finished the assessment and read through the results.

How Does This Affect You?

If you have innate working preferences, styles and strengths then you are better off playing the business game according to the rules where you can win.

In another article I talked about the different physical attributes for different types of athletes, a sprinter, a high jumper, a long distance runner and a shot putter.

If you are naturally a shot putter, you are big and heavy but very strong, then that is what you should do. Try any of the other events and you will struggle.

For employer / employee relationships this means that there has to be a link between the demands of the job and the working strengths of the candidates. Success is likely to come from finding the best fit.

But for an entrepreneur and business owner, it is a bit different.

You are responsible for everything that happens in your business, but you don't have to do everything.

How much more effective would you be if you delegated/outsourced work that didn't fit your natural pattern of strengths?

How much more effective would you be if you concentrated on taking more advantage of your strengths?

Rich Schefren, Strategic Profits & Strengths Mastery Advantage

By working in partnership with Kolbe Corp, Rich Schefren has put together the Strengths Mastery Advantage.

He is very proud of this service and backs it up with an excellent guarantee.

In his blog when he was looking back over 2007, a remarkable year for Rich Schefren and his company Strategic Profits, he rated the development of the Strengths Mastery Program as one of his three biggest achievements.

Tips For Taking the Test

If you decide to take the Strengths Mastery Advantage you will find that you are asked to choose best and worst options out of four statements.

Go with your instinct.

The questions ask you to choose between strengths so you look at them and think "I want to do that, and that, and that..."

So don't try to over-analyse and there are some hard choices. I found it particularly difficult selecting the least likely in some cases.

When you get to the end you will be presented with the report which you can print but not save. You are given the option to email it to other people so I just emailed it to myself so that I have a copy I can go back to.

I recommend that you take the assessment. It will help make it clear in your mind what you should delegate.

I know I feel guilty about passing over some things that I am not very good at but the Strengths Mastery Advantage assessment will take away any guilty feelings.

Your task is to bring together the skills and abilities needed to make your business work efficiently and effectively. By concentrating on your strengths and delegating the rest you will improve both.

Just remember:

In business you don't get an A for effort. You get paid for the results that you achieve and those results depend on your strengths.

That's why it is so important to know what your strengths are and to plan your working life around building on your strengths and not around trying to compensate for weaknesses.

As Kathy Kolbe said "My definition of success is the freedom to be yourself."

To Your Success

Your Profit Coach

Paul Simister

Business coaching for customer focused entrepreneurs

Ken Blanchard - The One Minute Apology 4.5 Stars

The full title of this book by Ken Blanchard and Margaret McBride is "The One Minute Apology: A Powerful Way To Make Things Better."

I had forgotten how good this book is until I re-read it yesterday after failing to find another book I own in the One Minute Manager Series.

This book, like the others, is told in the form of a story and makes some powerful points in what i find an entertaining way.

I know that some people find these story based business books simplistic and twee but I find the ones I like to be a welcome relief from the deadly dull prose of some of the more serious books I read.

According to Brian Tracy, "I was wrong" are three of the most important words that a manager can learn to say and "The One Minute Apology" helps you admit that you were wrong and to apologise for what has happened.

Admitting you are wrong means that you have to accept responsibility for what has happened which can be difficult.

Once you have admitted your mistakes and apologised for the impact they made on someone else, you can move forward to putting things right.

This is an essential part of life and just as important in our private lives as it is in business when our mistakes affect customers, staff, suppliers and other stakeholders.

It has been shown that admitting mistakes to customers, apologising and putting problems right has a dramatic effect and can turn a critic into a major advocate - see Service Recovery: Making Things Right After They Have Gone Wrong.

The Story Of The One Minute Apology

Profits are down and the President of the company has made some mistakes. The company is in crisis and in a showdown meeting with his board of directors, the President refuses to accept responsibility.

A new meeting is scheduled for three days time after the weekend and the President is asked to "consider his position."

Fortunately the president has an ally in the meeting. A young assistant who is shocked at what happened but knows the One Minute Manager, an old family friend and arranges to visit for the weekend.

While the assistant is away, the One Minute Manager and his family teach him the secrets of the One Minute Apology.

There are a couple of stories within the story that I will share below and through one of them, the assistant manages to get his boss thinking in terms of accepting responsibility and apologising.

The President and the assistant meet up at 7:00 am the day before the second showdown with the board of directors and the President knows that he should apologise but doesn't know how.

But the assistant now knows the secrets of the One Minute Manager and coaches the President. The President then calls his team together, apologises to them and they put together a recover plan.

The next day, the President faces the board of directors the knives are being sharpened.

But because the President now accepts responsibility, apologises, identifies the actions needed to correct the situation and makes a personal sacrifice, like all good fairy stories, they all live happily ever after.

Alfred Noble & the Nobel Peace Prize

Alfred Noble had an unusual experience.

He got to read his own obituary in a newspaper.

His brother had died and a newspaper made a mistake and mixed up the achievements of the two brothers.

Alfred read that he was destined to be remembered as the man who invented dynamite!.

Not the most positive image - to be always be associated with destruction - and Alfred decided to do something about it. He redesigned his life so that he would be remembered as the man who promoted world peace.

Quite a transformation but I love the story because it shows the power of building your live purposefully. Michael Gerber recommends that you write your own eulogy or obituary as part of his thinking on defining your Primary Aim.

Abraham Lincoln

The One Minute Apology also tells about Lincoln apologising to an army officer after curtly requesting permission to attend his wife's funeral.

You may already know it because I think the story is also told in Dale Carnegie's "How To Win Friends And Influence People". It was the power of this story that started the President thinking along the right lines.

The Essence of the One Minute Apology

What I like about the One Minute books is that they can be read at different levels.

The stories are short and can be read in one to two hours and you can be putting the ideas into action after a short period of reflection.

But the books are great to skim because of the summary pages with the main ideas which is ideal for reinforcement and easy reference when you just want to be reminded of the key concepts.

Summary

I recommend "The One Minute Apology" very highly and give it 4.5 stars.

It seems to me that the world would be a better place if everyone read the One Minute Apology, accepted responsibility for their mistakes, apologised and then focused on making amends.

You can buy it through Amazon UK or USA although the reviews are mixed - some love it, some hate it which I find interesting.

Perhaps some people don't like the idea that to apologise sincerely you have to accept responsibility, others find the story line irritating and some find the ideas over-simple.

But I like simple ideas - they are easy to understand and easy to apply. I first read this book about five or six years ago and I have tried to put the principles I learnt into action ever since.

To Your Success

Your Profit Coach

Paul Simister

Business coaching for customer focused entrepreneurs