Moore Life Lessons

 

Leaders Attract & Retain Top Talent...Turning Managers Into Mentors

If you want to be a leader and attack top talent today you need to address three things. The world we live in, the people in the world we live in and what you need to be and do to become a positive influence to both.

THE WORLD

We live in a fast past changing world, a different world than we were born into! We all acknowledge that, but just how different is it? Why is it so different and how can we adapt

and thrive in this new world?

It’s important to understand we’re living in the transition to a 'new economy' a new way of

life really, but just how different is our world? The International Monetary Fund has now stated "This economy is beyond our knowledge and experience.” Really, it's beyond the people who have been in charge for a very long time. So, it's a brand new and in this world, it won’t be enough to stay ahead of your competition, you’ll need to keep up with your employees and customers. It’s not just a ‘new economy’ it’s actually a new socioeconomic system that makes this a radically different world to live and work in. It’s the dramatic shifts in people’s attitudes, social views and values that makes this a massive socioeconomic transition.

Why is today so different? We’ve gone through economic and social ups and downs for 100’s of years, isn’t this just another fluctuation? No, it's a transition different from anything we’ve ever experienced. We’ve never had the population, demographics, globalization, technology, virtual reality, augmented reality, 3D printing, science, healthcare and artificial Intelligence we’re faced with today. Add to these factors the 4 generations main generations of people living on the planet who seem to have deteriorating character, values and integrity. It’s really the perfect socioeconomic storm.

It’s the social shifts that really add to the challenge we all face in business. We've become a celebrity society where Boomers want to be rich, Gen X wanted change and 50% of millennials state they want to be famous and rich and now we’re about to add Gen Z. The celebrity society influence of luxury lifestyles and a reality, that isn’t a real reality, is in everyone's face everywhere they turn. 

Today's employees are faced with the possibility of more jobs changes than ever before and we’re headed to a time of more change in the next 100 months than we've experience in the last 100 years as this transition continues to develop, mature and head towards the rapid advancements in technology, science and health care. 

A transition this significant and massive will be messy and when we look back this transition will be significantly more challenging than the shift from the agriculture age to the Industrial age.

Sounds tough, has been tough, will be tough but you know the saying, 'When the going gets tough, the tough get going'! Change has always been the only constant but today it's happening so fast it's producing more insecurity, anxiety, worry and earthen the average person can handle. And that is the point, this transition requires people to keep up by become lifelong learners who embrace the idea of continual growth and improvement. 

I have good news, there's great opportunity for any business that's tough enough to get going by giving people purpose, by challenging them to be their best and helping people learn, grow and improve to face this new world. The business leaders that accept the challenge will be those standing tall, attracting and retaining top talent, talent that will help them reap huge personal rewards, impact many lives and increase profits!

THE PEOPLE

Understanding people's mindsets gives you the insights to start being a positive influence. Most people are suffering from ‘Economic & Social Normalcy Bias’, it hasn’t happen before so it can’t happen now. The arrogance or denial that results from this causes them to fight to maintain a status quo or go back to a better time. This causes people to keep doing what made them successful or comfortable in the past. This plan won't end well since we cannot stop the rapid change we are experiencing. Past success and comfort are the greatest enemy to present and future success because they keep us from embracing today's changes and taking new actions. Frankly most business owners and executives are comfortable because they’ve worked hard for years to get comfortable. So your first challenge is to accept that it's time to be uncomfortable if you want to grow and improve. Is also important to remember you're either getting better or you're getting worse, there's no maintaining the status quo.

What's about all the articles, studies and talk about the millennials and aging boomers?

Let's take a closer look at the generations. What’s the difference between the generations? Not as much as what most people think! With all the change that's happening our human nature hasn't changed and all 3 generations seem to suffer from deteriorating values, integrity and character which infects and influences each other! 

It's in out nature to seek comfort and make excuses so in this way we are the same. Our future success depends on the same thing it always has, self-discipline, the ability to face and do the things we don't want to, to get the things that are best for us. We were all created to be extraordinary but wired to be mediocre until someone inspires, motivates and coaches us to be our best. That's why leaders who coach, inspire and motivate win! Today however mediocrity is king, standards have been lowered and leadership is more important than ever before! 

You will need to understand that you will not lead a group of all passionate, motivated individuals. The majority of people will be average and your job will be to get 10%-20% above average behavior form these average people.  Don't stop looking for extraordinary people but know that when you hire them they will either move up in your organization or out to better  themselves and you will always be working to improve the average people they leave behind.

The truth about any group of people is that that are full of average people just trying to be comfortable and get by. The vast majority of people are busy looking for the easiest way, not the best way, and your challenge is to help them overcome their nature that drives them to be average.

The good news is that for any organization to be extraordinary they only need people to be slightly above average, because a group of slightly above average people pulling together produce exceptional results. The more important issue is how do you inspire average people? The answer...Give them purpose!

BEING A POSITIVE INFLUENCE

A leader armed with the acceptance that things are truly different, change will keep occurring at light speed and people will always seek to be comfortable and be average, if not given a purpose that inspires them to overcome their nature, is ready to become the positive influence and difference maker that can succeed in the new world. 

If you are going to be the employer of choice, attract and retain top talent, you must accept

that you are first and foremost in the people development business. You will not improve your company, you can only improve your people. You are in the people development business or you're working way out of business!

A great place to start changing the way you hire, train, coach and develop your people is to remember people's #1 reason for leaving their job...Their boss! It's time to lead and turn your managers into mentors. Training falls far short of what's needed to inspire and motivate people. Coaching, which happens daily and starts by instilling and addressing attitudes, monists and people's emotional intelligence is the key to attracting and retaining top talent. 

So take an honest look, make a list and make sure there are great reasons why people would want to work for you? What is our personal brand, your influence? Do you give people a purpose higher than themselves or just having a job? Ask yourself, "Am I the leader you’d want to follow? 

Then, you can begin to ask your people to answer the question, "Are you the followers they'd want to lead?"

Studies reveal that people perform best when working for a purpose. The best purpose a

business can have is to make a positive difference in people's lives, not just give them a job! You need a higher purpose that inspires, motivates and brings people together. Helping people be their best is a purpose that creates a performance culture in your business and helps hold people accountable to perform at their peak. To do this owners, executives and managers need to be engaged, connected and an active communicators who coach attitudes, teach skills and manage action to hold people accountable to be their best. You need to love your people enough to get the best out of them!

You need to turn your managers into mentors! Leaders and managers who mentor and coach attract and retain top talent because they stand out and make your company the employer of choice.

Great leaders have always been committed to helping people learn, grow and improve. In fact, if your people aren't learning, growing and improving, you aren't leading. You may be running a business, but how long can it run on the backs of average people when average people keep lowering the bar?

You need to define who you are as a company? If a corporation is an individual then give it a personality, character and values that inspire people, attract people and makes people proud to be a part of. Do you have a company 'To Be List’? Who do you want your company to be? How do you expect your people to behave. If everyone knows who you are, you'll attract those like you and give them a compass to stay on course. You can also recruit using your 'To Be List' to set expectation for future employee coaching, development and behavior.

Next make sure you have set clear standards and communicate them to everyone. Remember a standard is the lowest form of behavior you will tolerate and not ever lower. These standards can be used when recruiting to establish your expectations. Standards are also the key to instilling a performance culture where people hold each other accountable. Oh, by the way, if you aren't prepared to hold people accountable to meet the standards, don't bother doing anything, just wait and prepare for the end of your business, because it's coming sooner than you think. High standards and accountability attract top talent and chases away those trying to hide,et by and be mediocre. Low standards chases away top talent and attract the mediocre.

What should you be looking for in your people? You should be recruiting people with high emotional intelligence who posses a growth mindset, not a fixed mindset. Recruiting instead of waiting until you are desperate is an important element attracting top talent. So is how you interview and test. So if you really want to be the best, build an organization that performs to is peak you have to invest in recruiting, testing, training, coaching and you need it to be a priority because it is the best way to increase your efficiency and productivity.

Make sure you have people who are responsible to always be recruiting. If you want good people you have to be obsessed with pursuing them and developing them. We've heard that people are our most important asset for decades and watched as not must was done to prove anyone really believed that. If you're ready to accept that as fact, then take actions that prove it. It requires resources and money, but will produce the best return on investment you make. So make sure your have a budget for recruiting and people development. Then take action to improve your people. Be active at job fairs, veterans organizations, start internships, be visible at colleges and business organizations and start looking  or the other industries that you can recruit people from. You need to build a deep bench by never continuously  recruiting! This will also help you have the strength to hold people accountable to meet your standards. It will give you the courage to raise those standards and watch people begin to take more pride in their work and company.

Once you know who you are and who you’re looking for you can effectively promote your company and personal brand by creating a social media presence that will be a positive influence on your existing employees and prospective employees of  all generations.

This new world we talked about presents us with a great opportunity. One that can produce extraordinary rewards. We have to remember though, easy doesn't ever produce excellence, it's always the result of doing the hard stuff, and leading people, managing people and getting the best out of people isn't easy, it's just worth the effort!

Today your people matter more than ever before because the average person’s standards have fallen so low and that makes mediocrity more dangerous than ever before.

The challenges you face today demands that you build a company made up of people with above average attitudes who give an exceptional effort everyday. These will be people with high emotional intelligence and a growth mindset. When you do, they’ll take your company a level up to serve your customers needs before they even know they have them. One of the greatest challenges of the 'new economy’ it to be able to provide information before it's common knowledge. To provide creative ideas to solve the unforeseen problems your customers face. You need people who can think one step ahead of your customers, not just respond to them and you won’t just hire these types of people you'll need to hire right and then continue to develop them. It’s not about training as much as it is about ongoing coaching that generates continuous individual and group development. 

Today, you're either all in to help people be their best or you're on your way to being average and then extinct. So if you're in, start controlling the two things within your power, people’s attitudes and effort! Commit to spend the time, money and resources to create a performance culture in your business that moves average people a level up and produces peak performers who excel in this new world we live in. I promise you that your ROI on the time and money invested will be off the charts!

Build 'It' And Everything Improves!

Overcoming Mediocrity & The Status Quo

We've all heard actions speak louder than words. That's because what we do, not what we know or say, produces our results. You've also probably heard insanity defined as, 'Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result'. I want to add to that, 'Doing something the easiest way and expecting excellent results'. So, it's actions that separate mediocrity from excellence.

These are truths we all know but only peak performers and leaders use to their greatest advantage. By definition, mediocrity creeps up on and overcomes the majority of people and has to be overcome to become extraordinary. You cannot expect mediocrity, or the status quo, to produce excellence.

Knowing these truths, why do people keep doing what they've been doing while wanting better results, a better life or a better company? Why do the majority hold on to and even fight to protect their routines or status quo? Our habits or routines either serve us by generating the actions that produce the results we want, or trap us in our own status quo which keeps us doomed to produce the same, or, even worse, diminishing results.

What drives people to create the routines or habits that fill their day? Why do most people create routines that lead them to produce average results? Why do most people in the same field of endeavor act so similar and have similar routines? The answer to these questions will give you the power to overcome average by creating new routines that will produce improved results.

Uncovering the motives that produce your daily routine is the first step in changing it.  Knowing how to disrupt your routine will allow you to break free from the habits that are holding you back. By managing the motive of your routine, you'll empower yourself to generate the new routines and habit needed to improve your results.

For over 20 years I've been studying people, their motives and routines. I've been interviewing individuals and asking groups of people why they do what they do each day at work. This has left me with one definitive reason average performers create their routines. The answer is to find the easiest, or most efficient way to do what they have to do each day.

As long as a person's motive is to find the easiest, most efficient or most comfortable way to do somethings, they will never produce more than mediocre results. The easiest way to do something rarely produces the best result. In fact, it's usually the worst way. 

Most people working at the same job will create similar routines that produce almost the same results. They will avoid the same challenging tasks, the one's that produce the best results. 

Sometimes, more creative and intelligent people use these skills to find easier ways to do their work. This often produces below average results from what should be top performers. Other highly skilled people may produce just above average results, while doing their job the easiest way but never producing excellence even with their superior skills. People's motives and routines must change to raise their performance and make them extraordinary.

To overcome mediocrity or the status quo, the motive driving your routines has to change from, finding the easiest way to do your job, to finding the best way to do your job.

Peak performers are constantly looking to learn, grow and improve. This helps them change their routines. It drives them to create better habits and never except the status quo. If you want to produce superior results, you'll have to develop the habit of  'Doing things you don't want to do.' These will be the things the majority of people are trying avoid that makes them mediocre.

Changing up your routines also keeps you from becoming bored, losing energy or being so focused on doing what you usually do (your own status quo) that you develop tunnel vision and miss new opportunities.

Improved self-esteem and self-confidence along with increased passion and energy are some of the additional side benefits to, 'Doing things you don't want to do.' 

Passion and curiosity to challenge the status quo always proceeds finding the best way to do anything that produces excellence. 

By Mike Moore

Employee First Leadership

The customer is always right. How far off course did we go following this mantra? I think most people in business and sales can explain what this philosophy was intended to produce and yet we've all witnessed the unintended consequences and damage this has

done to the buyer and seller relationship.

This attitude came from our desire for instant gratification which never generates the best results. Do whatever it takes to make sales became the strategy in the, 'Just win baby! and 'Just Do It!' age of business. To win today, the mantra needs to shift to, 'Just Do It Right', but first let's look at the unintended consequences before we talk about how to become the leader who can reverse their effects.

The unintended consequences...

If the customer is always right, then the employee is always wrong. Imagine going to work and knowing you will always be wrong...Very demoralizing.

A dysfunctional relationship between buyers and sellers occurred during, 'The Customer Is Always Right' age. Buyers became much too entitled and salespeople focused on making a sale, not doing what's best for the buyer or making customers.

The focus on making new sales, not customers, caused buyers to feel that salespeople were more concerned about the transaction than they were about them or the outcome they wanted. Mistrust grew between buyers and salespeople. Both sides didn't trust the others intentions.

Salespeople, customer service and executives became afraid to tell buyers no, walk away or look for a better opportunity to do good business. Business is all about connecting with people who can help each other and it needs a healthy trust between buyers and sellers to grow and be profitable.

People were actually treated poorly. Employees were abused and buyers indulged to the point they became spoiled, non-compliant buyers who couldn't be satisfied, sold at a profit or become loyalty customers.

Employees began to not trust their own companies. The belief that the company really didn't care about them or the buyer grew. They started to feel that the company only cared about making a profit. Don't get me wrong, leaders need to make sure their company is profitable or they won't be around to care about people. However, if people are their company's greatest asset then they need to act like it.

The phrase 'Do what's best for the buyer' was, and in most cases still is, interpreted as, 'Do whatever they want' to get them to buy or go away if they are complaining.

We intended to improve customer service by pleasing the buyer.  Instead, spoiled consumers soon had no loyalty. This reduced their buying decision to the lowest price which usually didn't result in what was best for the them, creating more dissatisfaction. This became a vicious cycle and war broke out between buyers, sellers and companies.

We talked about customer satisfaction, spent millions on surveys and customer retention programs while our intention and focus to make new customers (sales), offended our existing customers.

None of this is part of a good business plan which created many unrealistic expectations that could not be met.

Business historians will surely look back and write about how foolish 'The Customer Is Always Right' age of business was and the mess we made of business relationships during this period. We chased short term gains and created long term disaster!

Now it is time for the 'People First Age of Business' and the good news is that the results can be the longest most sustainable economic boom in history.

To lead your business to a healthy, profitable and sustainable place your people will need to

be more important than your customers. That's right, 'Employee First Leadership' starts with your people, then you can create a 'Customer First Company'. When employees are happy, energized and challenged they are better prepared to make and keep customers by doing what's best for them, not just selling them, but truly serving them.

'Employee First Leaders' do what's best for the people who work for them, and then ask them to always do what's best for the buyer to make them a customer.

A 'Customer First Company' makes customers, not just sales. Doing what's best isn't always what the buyer wants but what's in their best interest. This holds true with your employees as well. What's best for them isn't always what they want but it's a leaders responsibility to serve people, not please people. Serve your people and ask them to serve others and make customers and your sales, revenue and profits will increase. In addition, you'll create long term sustainable growth.

I knew an uneducated man, a high school drop-out, who ended up owning a car wash.  He left for lunch one day and left his son in charge.  When he returned from lunch he found his son at the booth taking new customers money.  The line of cars to wash grew longer.  They seemed busy with lots of new customers and the son was happy.  The son felt good as he talked with the new customers waiting to get their cars washed and the line continued to grow. The father took the son aside and explained that it's easy to take people's money but the most important part of the business was to keep them coming back. He further explained that it only happens because of perfectly washed cars.

He made the point to his son to stay focused getting the cars washed and keeping the line moving. I said he was uneducated, I didn’t say he wasn’t smart.  The memory of this event comes to mind even when I am working with large corporations, industry leaders and multi-million dollar companies. 

He was explaining 'Employee First Leadership' without knowing it. It's always more important for a leader to spend their time with the people who make customers because customers come back and send other people to your business ready to become new customers. In addition, word of mouth spreads virally in the social age and allows 'Customer First Companies' to establish their brand and grow faster.

This is 'Employee First Leadership' and it works for all businesses and organizations. Make the people who serve your customers more important than new sales and your business will prosper and grow. 

By Mike Moore

The Road Ahead...New Leadership Required

We are headed for more trouble as many of you are witnessing and sharing with me daily. The majority of stories shared with me include faltering hopes, negative attitudes and a sense of doom from those on the front lines of business...salespeople. Frustration is mounting among many salespeople that their daily reality and their companies leadership approach aren't aligned. In fact, many salespeople feel their companies leadership is detached from their reality.

We are, and have been, in a transition to a 'new age of business' for many years. As a point of reference, the 'digital age' wasn't a transition to a new economy or age of business, it wasn't an age at all. It was the addition of advancing technology to the industrial age. The transition we are in now is a transition as significant as the one from the agricultural age to the industrial age and includes a shift to a 'new economy'. We have been experiencing the pain of this transition since 2008 because it was seen as part of the old cyclical economy instead of a major transition or shift.  

Leaders responded with old solutions to past cyclical downturns, instead of reacting to the transition with new ideas, thinking and actions.

Many business leaders are still suffering from 'economic normalcy bias'...They believe because it's never happened to them before it won't happen now. Their past experience and comfort clouds their vision. What they're experiencing is very much like the people who believed the earth is flat...Their belief didn't make it true, it only held them back and robbed them from exploring what was possible. It took new thinkers with a vision of a new world and the courage to fail, to explore the truth and succeed...Just as it will today. Mainstream economists are starting to acknowledge that we're not in a downturn but have entered a 'new economy'.

Too many leaders and almost all followers are waiting for and banking on a recovery that isn't coming...I am not sharing this with you as bad news, it isn't doom and gloom. In fact, this transition is good news! 

Great news, in fact, for those with clear vision, courage and the right attitudes to take advantage of the opportunities a 'new age of business' presents. The leaders in this 'new age of business' will experience great new successes just as those in the past did.

Struggling with this transition shouldn't come as a surprise though. It happened before. It's hard to be a successful leader from one age to the next because what made you a success in one doesn't assure your success in the next.

Contrary to most, I don't believe change is painful...I believe it's the resistance to change that causes the pain. The evidence of this is seen when we embrace change and become reenergized with new vision for the future or resist change and suffer in the fight to maintain our comfort with our status quo and past successes.

The old cyclical economy is broken and there is no recovery coming but there are many opportunities for new leadership to succeed today and in the coming years .

What we are experiencing is different, unique in fact. Changes in demographics, business and work ethics, consumer attitudes, economic debt, technology and globalization have all come together to drive this transition. There will be many winners in the 'new age of business'. The question is will you be one or will you get caught holding on until it's too late?

For those leaders holding on to the old economic model, the temporary short-term successes experienced, read or heard about, just help them hold on to the status quo a little longer and postpone their successful transition. 

For those with vision, who trust their instincts and truly believe people are a businesses greatest asset, new achievements and success are just around the corner.

Change, real change, is coming and it's bringing with it new amazing opportunities for those with the courage to truly put people first, hold them to a higher standard, embrace new thinking and take bold new actions. These people will become the leaders in this 'new age of business' and begin to writing the next chapter in history.

Welcome to the 'people first age of business'.

By Mike Moore

No One Sets Out To Be Average

How can you prepare to be more cheerful, happy and prepare to handle the hassles of a normal day? How can you assure yourself of not being average? 

When people wake up in the morning they have an expectation or intention for their day. It's a choice that separates average for extraordinary. What are your intentions or expectations for the day ahead?  I've asked individuals and groups, large and small, this question over the past two decades and the overwhelming number one answer is, “I want to have a good day”.  When I ask people to define a good day, the definition is, “A day with little to no problems or hassles”.   When I ask them how many days a year this intention or expectation is met, they usually answer, “None”.  Yet, they wake up each day and repeat this behavior without changing their expectation or intention. The vast majority of people start each day with an unrealistic expectation or intention, that when not fulfilled, makes them frustrated, upset and unhappy. When we set expectations that aren't met, we are usually disappointed.

Managing your own intentions and expectations drives your daily emotions and state-of-mind. Average people focus on their circumstances and not their solutions. This makes their circumstances the driver of their emotions. This will make their emotions or state-of-mind a roller coaster ride of peaks and valleys that sabotage their ability to create the results or life they want. 

First, let’s look at why people set an intention or expectation of no problems, no hassles and no worries, and defined this as a good day.  When we wake up each day we have a choice to make, “Better or Comfortable”.  Our human nature seeks comfort before improvement and is satisfied to be comfortable. We don't want to be average but have to choose to do things we don't want to do if we want to be above average. We don’t wake up each day driven to be better human beings or to make things in our life better.  So, the challenge is how to overcome our human nature and stop sabotaging our own lives. 

When we define a good day as no problems, no hassles and no adversity and then meet the first problem of the day, how do we react? If you said, “Frustrated” you'd be right.  Your expectation or intention has set you up to be frustrated. Not the best state-of–mind to handle life or work problems. This pattern of behavior begins a downward spiral of poor emotions. These emotions make you less capable of handling the next problem. Maintaining this emotional cycle may even make you avoid, withdraw or quit trying to overcome the obstacles in your day. The end result of this is average, at best.

How can you change your expectations or intentions to change your results? Remember, "Everyday the choices you make, makes you".  When you start your day, change your expectation or intention by changing your definition of a good day.  Let’s revisit the idea or definition of a good day. If your choice is comfort you define it as “no problems”. Think about when you feel best about yourself. Your self-worth or self-esteem is best when you overcome adversity, solve problems and help others.  So to change your results, to develop the emotional state-of-mind to make a difference in your life, you need a new definition of a good day.

This new definition can help you make a better first choice as you wake up each day. Define a good day as one where you find, meet and overcome problems and adversity. Yes, you need to wake each day looking for problems.  Problems to solve that will help people.  Just a note...You shouldn't be looking to make problems...that won't make for a better life. You need to look for and find existing problems, and then help solve them.  If you are part of a problem, stop complaining and start finding solutions. This definition will help you to stop avoiding conflict and endure difficulties with the proper emotional state-of-mind.  Armed with this new definition, when you find problems, you will be eager to meet them head-on and won't become frustrated.  You'll become an overcomer and not a victim of your circumstances.

Adversity and problems are the obstacles that stand between where you are and the results or life you want.  The first step to overcoming adversity and problems is to develop an attitude or emotional state-of-mind that can overcome the obstacles. Our attitudes are most affected by our intentions and expectations that create our daily choices and allow us to choose to be better rather than comfortable. This thinking will even start to help you embrace change and stop fighting to hold on to a status quo that may be keeping you average as well. 

Redefine a good day, expect problems and hassles. Become an overcomer, a solution finder, and then you'll begin to experience a, 'Good Day'...everyday. This cycle of behavior will make your life is a journey of solutions that serve others and rewards you with the results and life you want.

A final thought for leaders...You are responsible to teach, prepare and help people set expectations that will allow them to live and work towards a better life. Helping people understand how their expectations and intentions are empowering them or sabotaging them is a good first step.

Change your expectations to prepare for the hassles of life to increase your happiness and improve your results. Expect more of yourself and less of others...These is one of the top traits of leaders and peak performers.

By Mike Moore

Intentions Effect Results

Most people don't need new skills as much as
they need new intentions, attitudes and leadership.
We cannot choose the path of least resistance, 

the easy way, and get exceptional results.

Comfort Is The Enemy Of Peak Performance

Comfort and familiarity are the enemy of peak performance. You are in danger of losing your edge when you reach a comfortable place or become too familiar with your routines. After reaching a comfort zone when familiarity sets in, it breeds boredom which reduces enthusiasm.  

This comfort and boredom causes people to stop being curious, learning, growing and pursuing new challenges and achievements.  Comfort can never be the primary goal if you want to be a peak performer but it can sneak up on you and sabotage the mind-set needed to be a peak performer.

When you seek comfort and achieve it, the danger is that you'll begin to protect your comfort zone and stop working to change, grow and improve. In fact, you can begin to become defensive and aggressively resisting change.

Albert Einstein defined insanity as, "Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result." My definition is, "Most people choose the easy way or path of least resistance, and then expect exceptional results".

Studies have shown most people will fight to stay in an unhappy situation rather than move into an unfamiliar or unknown situation that could bring them happiness. It's giving in to these natural desires for comfort and familiarity that makes most people produce mediocre results. They are the drivers of average behavior. They are the enemies of peak performance.

A peak performers biggest challenge is to reject the natural human desire to seek comfort and make a habit of pursuing change, growth and improvement. It's really an issue of becoming comfortable with the unfamiliar and staying outside your comfort zone. In the end all great achievements begins with self-discipline and the will to take actions other work to avoid.

Peak performers do the things average people avoid. They wake up each day and do the things they don't want to do because they know everything of value in life is the result of actions they don't want to take. One of life's great truths is that extraordinary achievements are on the other side of obstacles. In reality, the greater the achievements you pursue, the more obstacles you'll encounter.

Average achievers are more motivated by discomfort than by the desire to improve and achieve. Most people seek improvement until they are comfortable and then they resist change with the same energy they pursued comfort. 

Coach John Wooden said, "When you think you're through learning, you're through."  The most deadly words in the world are, 'I know that',  because the next thing someone does after they think or say those words is to stop listening, reading or learning.

When things get tough and change is needed, comfort often motivates people to 'hunker down' and 'wait' until things get better rather than taking actions and looking for alternatives to make things better.  Peak performers guard against stopping their forward progress, innovative thinking and advocating change by never seeking comfort.

Peak performers treat comfort as a plateau to be reached and a launching pad to their next achievement. Peak performers keep climbing because they know if they don't they risk falling becasue fighting to maintain your comfort level is a recipe for unhappiness, mediocrity or failure. Average is just not an options to peak performers.

When the time comes that you'd rather be comfortable more than to pursue change, grow and improve, you are at risk of losing what you are so comfortable having. For peak performers, the choice is simple, even though it's not easy. Peak performers change directions and start again with new enthusiasm. Peak performers are energized by change. They view resistance to change as painful, not the change itself. 

Peak performers are great competitors and great competitors usually lose the will to prepare before they lose the desire to perform and achieve. When this happens, performance suffers and the end is near. 

We are facing unprecedented challenges today and new thinking, attitudes and skills are needed to achieve peak performance. The exciting news is it's an interesting time to live and work. 

There really isn't a risk in letting your comfort go because it's almost impossible to maintain it without change, growth and improvement. Holding on to comfort is like holding water in your hands, it will eventually evaporate, won't allow you to use your hands for anything else and it's easier to just find new water when you need it.

To keep your focus and peak performers mind set, set aside a few minutes each day to suspend what you defend. Set aside your beliefs, knowledge and experience while you attempt to learn something that is unfamiliar or unknown. This can even be looking at what you've been resisting, take the other side and try to argue its validity to yourself...Just give yourself a few moments to not be defensive and protect your position to see what else might be possible.

Peak performers re-energize themselves by embracing change and stretching themselves outside their comfort zones.  Be careful that the attitude and strategy to 'hunker down' and "'wait' for things to improve doesn't sneak into your thinking. 

In the pursuit of peak performance you'll have to stop pursuing comfort, resisting change and holding on to your status quo. Instead, you'll need to challenge yourself to think without limits and become a change agent whose pursuit is achieving all that's possible. Remember your goals are to be plateaus and a launching pad pursuing to achieve all that's possible.

By Mike Moore

Sales Leaders Coach To Create Peak Performers

This article is for all the salespeople, sales managers and executives who've been trying for years to improve without using the best tools available to achieve their best results. It's time to take advantage of all the tools available even if they make you uncomfortable.

SALESPEOPLE

The best tools available to improve your sales communication, attitudes, skills and actions are video and audio of live interaction between you and real consumers. I'm not talking about video shoppers...I'm talking about live selling engagements between real shoppers and salespeople in real selling situations. 

Selling is a performing art...Like athletes, actors and musicians you need to use live video and audio to review the selling engagement with consumers.    This is the best way to view how you're communicating with consumers. It's like athletes watching game video, not video of practice. Oh, and they do that too, so both are valid, but the best results come from watching and hearing real live selling engagements. 

Viewing and listening to live selling engagements with consumers allows for self coaching by salespeople so they can improve more quickly.  It’s the best way to create and reinforce the proper intentions, attitudes, actions and skills that will enable sales professionals to serve consumers, making customers and increase sales. So why don't you use it...Comfort, cost or fear...All poor reasons to not challenge yourself to be your best. 

Salespeople, like athletes think they are doing one thing until they see it for themselves. Rapid behavioral changes takes place when we watch ourselves and bold, significant results are achieved. If a picture is worth a thousand words, live video and audio is worth million...literally!

We can continue to read, talk and listen about how to sell, we can video practice or we can add viewing our live performances and make the changes necessary to improve the profession of sales.  When we are viewing and listening to live engagements, the lectures, reading, and studying we do becomes more valuable and magnifies it's impact to create the best results.

Live video and audio is greatly different than mystery shoppers or roll playing, even though both are needed exercises, they are insufficient to produce peak performance. Mystery shopping and roll playing misses the key ingredient in communication and human interaction, the intentions of the people communicating. Mystery shoppers and roll playing find out if salespeople know the right information about their products, services and company. This can be also be accomplished by written or verbal quizzes and tests.  

When you view the interaction between people with the real intentions you experience in live selling situations, you'll see, hear and know how you are truly communicating, interacting and responding with them. Then you will know what you need to do to improve.  Without the intentions of both people being real in a conversation, negotiation or a selling situation, it's just practice and it's insufficient to become your very best. Mystery shoppers and roll players have no intentions of buying and salespeople aren’t selling.

For many years, I've been teaching that salespeople practice their profession on consumers.  Unfortunately, this is an obstacle to rapid self-improvement unless it can be reviewed and used to improve.  If you don’t want to improve enough take responsibility, mature as a sales professional and use the best tools available, you are doomed to continue without ever achieving your best results.

I firmly believe we haven’t seen the best of the profession of selling but can if we are willing to add these tools to the lectures, reading and training we've used in the past.

SALES MANAGERS

The time has come to stop worrying about how good your salespeople are and start finding out.  Live video coaching will expose what you may be afraid of but you can’t change and begin to improve until you find out. It is time to acknowledge that we need to grow up and begin being the professionals we profess to be.

The idea that we have tools to improve at our disposal and haven’t utilized them, is a shame. That said, let’s not look back but begin now to use live video and audio to coach and improve the relationship between consumers and salespeople.

I know many sales managers who have resisted using these tools and can only wonder what they are afraid of.  Nothing we do out of fear will ever be a best practice.  In coming years, sales managers will use live video and audio to stay informed and coach their salespeople as a standard business practice.

Live video and audio is not intended to be a punitive tool but does create accountability.  It is a coaching and self-improvement tool.  Coaches have to be informed and pay attention to be effective. Live video with audio is the best way to pay attention.  You can’t coach what you’re unaware of.   As an accountability tool, salespeople in all selling environments, will be less likely to give less than their best effort to consumers when they know they are performing live all the time. A salesperson giving consumers their best effort is part of the maturation and growing process of the profession of sales.

EXECUTIVES

When executives accept that decades of doing business with the intention to make sales has broken the relationship between consumers and salespeople, then they need to take responsibility for this broken relationship and lead their business with a new intention.

It is time to start making customers, not sales, and live video and audio is the best tool to make sure this new intention is implemented.  

Too many years of talk and not enough action, has left the consumer believing businesses don’t care about them.

Executives have made too many decisions about how to operate their business and make profits without considering how it would affect their salespeople's communication with consumers and ultimately how this would effect their business, revenue and profits.

Most executives believe that people are the driving force to improve their business and live video, audio and new intentions will also energize  salespeople. Live video and audio can implement the intention to make customers, not just sales and result in increased sales, lower costs, increased profits and sustainable growth.

You wouldn’t run a business that depended on athletes peak performance without video for coaching and improvement. Don’t invest and risk your company’s money without using the best tools to insure peak performance from your salespeople.

PEAK PERFORMANCE

Live audio and video coaching should start with salespeople, then be available to the sales manager, and finally to executive management in a company. Teaching people how to use live video and audio during the implementation is key.

Keeping the focus on the self-improvement is the most important element in producing significant results.

Live audio and video coaching should never be punitive or feel as though big brother is watching.  Starting with salespeople allows them to quickly learn how valuable seeing and hearing themselves in real situations can be.  They even begin to use the information learned to build relationships in their follow-up with consumers.

After the salespeople become comfortable, learn to self coach and experience rapid improvements, then sales management can begin using the audio and video as a teaching and coaching tool. Seeing, hearing and knowing what is happen between their salespeople and consumers is the best information to develop the company's sales strategy and how to inspire, motivate and manage each salesperson.

Executives are the last to view and listen. This allows them to know how their salespeople are doing, see the improvements, build their confidence and understand why sales are increasing. This allows executives to have a better understanding of their customers and how best to market to them as well. Constant improvement and peak performance has many leadership benefits to the company.

Without live audio and video, a commitment by everyone to be their best by using the every tool available, we will continue to manage sales in the dark and suffer the consequences of poor sales communication and interaction with consumers.

It is time to use the best tools and begin to experience the best of the profession of sales!

By Mike Moore