Timing...A Key To Effective Coaching

Coaching is so often about the right timing of the right words,

not just the right words. It’s planting in the right season to grow the most improvement. Leaders who coach are aware of this and masters of timing!

Just some of the coaches I learned from!

The ABCs Of Leadership...Always Be Coaching

When it comes to leadership, coaching and team building I had the distinct advantage of being raised by a coach and witnessing what coaches do in the locker room, sideline, meeting room, practice field, pregame, halftime and postgame meetings. My father also decided because of my love of sports to teach me all he knew and who and shared his tips, traits and

insights into leading, coaching and preparing people to perform to their peak. 

Being a coach’s son is a great way to grow up. It's an even better way to learn about the true value of sports and how to apply the lessons sports teaches us to our everyday lives, business, peak performance and how to become a leader. What I learned and applied to business led me to understand The ABCs of Leadership...Alway, Be, Coaching!

A coach's son gets exposed to the little things that make the difference between winning and losing in sports, business and life. The following are some of the most important lessons I learned from my father, growing up in a locker room, from other great coach's and my experience leading, teaching and coaching people using these lessons. 

Sports have always been an integral part of society. Leadership and peak performance are two of the many lessons we learn from sports that have nothing to do with the score, who won or who lost. Below I'll share 27 of the key lessons from my Locker Room Leadership Program.

My earliest memory of my father teaching me to coach began when I was 9 years old. It was a Friday night before a football game and as we entered the locker room he asked me to stop and listen...He asked me what I heard. He asked me what I felt. He asked if I felt the players were ready to play their best. It was the beginning for me of learning to prepare, lead and coach people. It was the beginning of my path to becoming who I am today. That first lesson was that leaders manage the atmosphere by coaching attitudes, emotions and the state-of-mind that produces winning results. 

I grew up in my Dad's coaching office, watching game film, on the practice field and in the locker room. I spent time with him learning to game plan and plan practices to prepare athletes to execute his plans. I watched him prepare his players to perform and was on the sidelines and heard the in-game coaching,  halftime adjustments and post game speeches which were always to get them ready...again. Then, I spent time listening to other coaches exchange ideas and heard coaches speak at coaching clinics. I am a coach's son, raised to be a coach and thankful for the lessons I learned.

The last time I spoke to legendary Major League Baseball Manager and family friend, Bobby Cox, he reminded me that I was doing what my father raised me to do...In business, rather than in sports.

My father exposed me to many of the great coaches of the past 50 years and I've learned

MY DAD, CHARLIE MOORE

from all of them. Coaches like Vince Lombardi, Bear Bryant, Tom Landry, Red Auerbauch, Don Shula, Chuck Knoll. Then I began to study coaches like Bill Walsh, Bill Belichick, Pat Riley, Phil Jackson, Tommy Lasorda, Bobby Cox, Bill Cowher, Mike Tomlinson, Pete Carroll and Jim Harbaugh. The one who influenced me the most after my father, was in my opinion the greatest coach of all time...John Wooden.

Coaches never stop coaching and my father never stop coaching me. We continued to talk and share ideas. He helped me refine my coaching insights and skills until the day he passed away. He and I talked for hours on end about how to apply what we both knew about coaching to business, leadership and management. We found that all he had taught me applied to coaching, executive leadership, sales management and salespeople. In addition, I learned something from every coach I ever played for, every person I ever worked with and every client I every consulted. Leaders keep learning so they can keep teaching.

I found that life and business are a performing art, just like sports. I also learned that people performed best when 'coached up' by a leader. I believe that sports are important to society not because of who wins or loses, but because of the lessons we can learn about peak performance, coaching, teamwork and leadership. Don't get me wrong, winning makes playing the game more fun, just as achievements make life more fun, and coaching and leadership is about preparing people to have more fun!

After using all I had learned to lead, coach and manage people, I began writing, speaking, teaching and training about what I had learned that would help others prepare to perform to their peak to produce their best results. 

JOHN WOODEN

I was blessed in 1996 to have John Wooden take the time to meet with me. We spent hours discussing coaching, leadership and teaching. John graciously spent those hours at his home in Encino, California where we shared ideas about how leaders should view winning, losing, relationships and life. He opened up and shared his wisdom and insights and patiently answered all my questions. I lost my father, Charles Moore, in 1992 and John in 2010. I miss them both and feel very fortunate to have called them my mentors and coaches...I love them both.

Their influence and impact on me, and many others is their legacy and the reason they will never be forgotten. The lessons I learned from my father, John Wooden and the other great coaches have served me well and helped me serve others.

Now, I am teaching leaders, managers and coaches how to build businesses, teams and individuals that produce their best results. The following are some of the high points from my 'Locker Room Leadership Series' of workshops, seminars and coaching sessions.

• Leaders challenge people to always be learning, growing and improving, their attitudes, skills and actions, to become likable, trustworthy, experts, who are helpful, caring and courageous
• Great leadership, coaching, teaching, managing and parenting is an act of will.
• Leadership is something you do with people, not for them or to them.
• If you stop learning, growing and improving, you'll stop listening and leading.
• In a locker room, boardroom, sales office or with any group of people, if you pay attention you'll hear and feel the attitudes that need to be addressed and know when they're ready to perform.
• Peak performance is driven by Spirit (Attitude), Mind (Skill) and Body (Actions). To win in sports, business and life, they have to always be kept in that order.
• Leaders don't worry about averages or rules...They set and raise standards...The lowest form of behavior that's acceptable.
• Who you are as a coach or leader is defined by the lowest form of behavior you except.
• Leaders, like winning coaches, spend the most time with the people who need to improve the most...As long as they keep participating in their improvement.
• Leaders assign and monitor so they can coach, teach and manage to generate improvement.
• Leaders manage the air to produce a high performance atmosphere! They do this by managing attitudes, because attitudes create the behavior that produces the results.
• Leaders inspire, motivate and hold people accountable to be their best.
• The traits that separate leaders are their insight, intuition and personal touch.
• Great leaders love people...That's where their insight, intuition and personal touch comes from. Love motivates them to serve, not please people.
• Most managers and coaches sabotage the results they want by trying to manage the results they want, instead of leading by instilling the attitudes that produce the behavior that creates the results.
• When you manage people results, you’re too late to lead.
• Results, the score and winning, can’t be managed. Preparation and people's spirit, mind and body can be.
• Results come from the intentions, attitudes, skills and actions that were present long before the results.
• Winning takes care of itself when leaders help people learn, grow and improve their attitudes, skills and actions.
• Leaders lift people to accomplish beyond their own expectations through preparation.
• Treating everyone the same is the fastest way to show favoritism...It takes courage to treat each person the way they deserve to be treated…The way that's best for them.
• Leader’s help people grow and become their best by getting them to do the things they don’t want to do...People don't always like this when you're doing it.
• When you truly love people, confrontation is a great tool to improvement.
• Leaders instill a performance culture by managing people’s intentions, attitudes and dominant thoughts because they are the cause of people's behavior.
• Great leaders get uncommon results from common people by requiring them do the work to become uncommonly prepared.
• In the absence of leadership, mediocrity will take over and average is the best you can expect.
• You won't know how good a job you've done until you see how the people you've led, mentored and coached turn out...Sometimes that takes years but can last many lifetimes.

Everyday is a challenge for leaders. They are always swimming up stream, fighting mediocrity and average thinking. They have to inspire people to overcome their human nature and desire for comfort before excellence and they know this starts with them.

 By Mike Moore

Be...Do...Have!

If you wake up everyday to learn, grow and improve, your attitudes, skills and actions, to be a likable, trustworthy, expert, who is helpful, caring and courageous, you'll do more na have more!

Make your 'To Be List' of the things you want to be and stay focused on them rather than on what you want to do or have!

By Mike Moore

Sales Leaders Make Real Changes

Tired of the traditional sales training and the dysfunctional buyer and seller relationship that exists today? Do you really want to deliver a world-class customer experience?

Are you ready to stop complaining, making excuses and do something different to change your results? Or, are you not convinced it's really that bad?

Studies keep revealing what anyone in sales, who's honest with themselves, already knows...Buyers don't like, trust or believe salespeople, and salespeople don't respect or trust buyers to make good decisions.

No matter what you sell this applies!

So, do you really think it's a good plan to keep teaching and training salespeople to do what they've been doing to create this existing dysfunction? You can keep doing what you've been ding, work harder and complain about your results, or you can make real changes that will result in a new healthy relationship that benefits both the buyer and the seller.

Remember that change is inevitable but improvement is a choice that requires new thinking, attitudes, skills, actions and leadership. Sales leaders make real change while sales managers work hard at managing the existing dysfunction. A sales leader is a compass always pointing towards improvement.

So, if you're going to be a sales leader your purpose needs to shift from traditional sales intentions to healing the existing relationship between buyers and sellers. If you are going to do this you'll have to believe it will produce dramatic sales results.

You'll need to try a new approach, one that will develop your salespeople into likable, trustworthy, experts, who become more helpful, caring and courageous.

If you are or want to become that sales leader, the one who can make a real difference, contact me and let's get started. Let's make your next event, workshop, seminar or training session a breakthrough event that produces new levels of sustainable success!

By Mike Moore

Build 'It' And Everything Improves!

Leaders Are A Compass Always Pointing To Improvement

The ABCs Of Sales Leadership...Always Be Coaching

Sales leadership requires a unique set of skills! In fact, the ABCs of Sales Leadership, Always, Be, Coaching, requires sales leaders to understand the keys to sales success that

top salespeople posses and average salespeople need to learn. Then, they can coach, teach and manage them daily. 

The key for any sales coach is how they instill, inspire and develop their salespeople's Emotional Sales Intelligence (ESI). ESI is the combination of a salesperson's mindsets, beliefs and intentions. ESI reveals a salesperson's self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy and social skills. It's the driver of a salesperson's performance. It is the key to their continued development and actions. It's what separates mediocre salespeople from top performers.

If you want each year to be your best year yet, Then get ready to think, act and be different? It's time to be odd (Optimistically, Determined to be Different), or accept the alternative, being average!

So let's look at the 7 most important things a Sales Leader needs to understand so they can spend their time coaching, teaching and managing them to instill a winning sales culture and produce extraordinary results. 

1. Mindsets, beliefs and intentions drive behavior...

People cannot behave outside their mindsets and intentions. Some they're aware of, others are deeply rooted in their psyche, subconscious or human nature but they must be aligned or overcome to become their best.

The most important thing you can do is become self-aware of your mindsets, beliefs and intentions and learn to control them to create the results you desire!

2. Human nature and what people seek...

Are you good enough? Your answer sets you up to grow or shuts you down to be less than your best. You see, it's not that you need to be better, you're probably good enough to be comfortable or you'd be working hard to improve, just like you did until you reached your comfort level.

Instill the desire in your salespeople to learn, grow and improve, instead of seeking comfort. Help them create a habits of doing the difficult uncomfortable things first to become their best.

3. The power of intentions...

What are your salespeople's intentions when they go to work, and every time they meet with a prospective buyer?

The intention to make a sale must be shifted to helping, serving and doing what's best for the buyer. This is the secret sauce of top salespeople, that allows them to make customers and produces the best sales results.

4. Remembering the positive, overcoming the negative...

When salespeople think of buyer's, which one's do they remember? The compliant easy going buyers or the difficult, challenging, non-compliant buyers? Which ones' do they talk about the most and use as their excuses to keep from doing what extraordinary salespeople do? Since we're all wired to remember the negative the non-compliant buyers manage most salespeople's attitudes about buyers by default.

Top salespeople overcome their nature to remember the negative and stay focused on the positives. You must help them manage their attitude towards buyers and not let the difficult buyer manage their attitudes.

5. Respect and trust the buyers ability to make good decisions...

Only the top 4% of salespeople said they respected and trusted the buyers ability to make good decisions. Most salespeople don't respect the buyer and struggle to earn the buyers respect in return.

Hold your salespeople accountable to trust and respect the buyer's ability to make good decisions and watch their sales soar! Help them switch their mindset to respect and trust people's ability to make good decisions. Keep them focused on explaining the consequences of the buyers decisions, both good and bad, rather than just sharing information with the buyer.

6. Focus on the buyers ownership experience, not the buying experience...

Most salespeople are focused on the buying experience. Top salespeople focus on the buyer's ownership experience and this mindset transforms the sales conversation and the buyer and salesperson's relationship.

It's your job to shift your salespeople's focus from the short term reward of transactions, to the long term benefit of the buyer's ownership experience.  Help your salespeople overcome their nature to seek instant gratification and they'll improve, be at their best for the buyer and their sales will soar.

7. Conversations, not presentations...

Top salespeople are present, engaged and have real conversations with buyers. Most salespeople talking heads making sales presentation that buyers don't like, believe or trust.

Make sure your salespeople turn selling into an individual personal experience for each buyer. This will help them reach their peak performance! Teach them that selling isn't executing a sales process, it's being trusted enough that the buyer will invite them to be their guide in their buying process.

As you coach, teach and manage your salespeople always keep in mind, selling is the most difficult performing art in the world. Salespeople, like all performing artist, athletes or musicians, need a leader and leadership is personal, it's not professional! It requires a strong mind and a positive attitude to overcome the obstacles and adversity that comes with connecting, communicating and serving people everyday. In fact, I'd go so far as to say sales makes a great career but a lousy job. So, make sure your salespeople are all in, fully engaged and committed to a career in sales, and not just working at a job. Then, they'll be the difference in their buyer's ownership experience, make customers and enjoy the ups and downs of a sales career. 

By Mike Moore

Leadership Is An Act Of With Love

We often mistake love for a feeling...It's not a feeling, it's an action. In fact, it's many actions and it's leadership at it's finest! 

Before I get to the actions that make up love, let's define love...Love is patient and kind. It doesn't envy or boast, it's never proud. It doesn't dishonor others, it's not self-seeking or selfish, it's not easily angered and it keeps no record of wrongs. Love doesn't delight in evil or dishonest gain. Instead, it rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres...Love never fails.

Leaders need to love people...Yes, they have to care enough to want the best for those they lead.

It's even love that gives them the toughness and hard edge they need to challenge people to be their best, to set and raise standards of acceptable behavior. This is true in parenting, business, sports and religion...It's a leaders love that powers their belief and confidence in people. It's love that emboldens them to challenge people to learn, grow and improve. It's a leaders love that gives them the courage and strength to hold people accountable and it's love that helps them be open, honest and transparent.

It's a leaders love for people that causes those people to trust them and follow them in the first place. It's love that gives the vision a leader needs to know where they are going and how to help others get there with them.

When leaders fail it's because they didn't love people or lost their love of people. It's love that enables a leader to influence and inspire people to be more than they would be without them. 

If you want to be a leader...Love more!

By Mike Moore

Tips & Traits Of Peak Performers

LEADERS EARN RESPECT...BEFORE APPROVAL OR FRIENDSHIP!

TIP...BUILD TRUST

     Be accountable...Take responsibility

     Create an open, positive, risk taking environment

     Focus on solutions, not fault finding and assigning blame

     See unwanted results as an opportunity to improve individuals and the organization

     Don't be defensive...

     You don't have to have all the answers...Just help people find them

TIP...SET & HOLD HIGH STANDARDS

     Raise the bar...The lowest form of behavior you allow is who you are as a leader

     Blur the lines between job assignments...The mission is everyone's job

     Don't allow average behavior

     Assign and monitor all work to teach and coach using specifics

     Hold people accountable

TRAIT...CARE MORE ABOUT PEOPLE THAN RESULTS

     Manage people's attitudes before they become actions and poor results

     Don't allow people to accept average behavior

     Care enough to challenge people to get them to do what they don't want to do

     Don't overreact...Make people more important than results and the results will improve

     Teach, coach and mentor to help people grow

TRAIT...SUPPORT & VALIDATE PEOPLE

     Make taking time for people a priority

     Be respectful...Pay attention and listen

     Ask people's opinions...Pay attention and listen

     Reward extra effort...Pay attention

     Make people feel important...Pay attention

     Did I mention...Pay attention

TRAIT...EMBRACE CHANGE, MAKE IT A RITUAL

     Be a change advocate...Lead the change

     Encourage change...Ask people how they and the organization can improve

     Question everything...Never except or settle for the status quo

     Help people change to improve...When they don't, change your people

Be mindful that people will treat each other and your customers the way you treat them!