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

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

The Missing Step In Accomplishing Your Goals

We all have wishes, hopes and dreams but to turn them into goals and unleash their power, they have to be put in writing with a date to be completed.  


Wishes, hopes and dreams rarely come true while goals are often accomplished. 


Setting your goals is actually step three in accomplishing them. Step two is creating an action plan. You’ll need to start at step three and work backwards to create the first step to accomplishing your goals.

When people set goals they often don’t make an action plan for how to accomplish them and set themselves up to fail. For those who set goals and make an action plan, they’re still missing the most important and powerful step. They’re missing the first step and real driver behind accomplishing their goals. Most people fail to accomplish their goals because of this missing step!

Deciding who you need to become, the person who will take the actions in your plan is the powerful first step in accomplishing your goals. If you don’t change who you are, you won’t change your behavior. If you don’t change your behavior, you won’t achieve your goals.

To accomplish your goals, think in terms of these steps…Start at step three, setting your goals. Then take step two by making an action plan. Be aware that if you stop there and start trying to take actions you have set yourself up to fail, become frustrated with goal setting, and eventually stop setting goals altogether.

After setting your goals and making your action plan, take step one…decide the person you have to become to take the actions in your plan. Decide what attitudes, intentions, beliefs and character traits are needed to be the person who would naturally take the actions you’ve planned.

Now use these three steps to accomplish your goals. Start at step one, working on becoming that person. This may also give you insight to a better timetable to accomplishing your goals. If it does, then re-write your goals with a new date for them to be accomplished. This will help make your action plan and goals more realistic and more achievable.

Starting with this missing step will create less frustration and help you start working on the core cause of your accomplishing your goals…YOU!

Living A Life Of Bright Moments

At the peak of tremendous effort, when you have given all you have to give, and find yourself victorious, with your heart pounding in your chest and head, everything becomes still and quiet within you. Your thoughts and feelings seem clearer and illuminated. Everything becomes so bright it's as if a great spotlight has been turned on. At that moment you feel and believe you have the power to overcome any obstacle and conquer any challenge. In that moment you believe you have wings and can soar. There is no more precious moment in life than the bright moments and once you've experienced one, you'll work very hard for as long as it takes to experience another and then another!

The world is full of people going through life on cruise control. We all encounter them daily. Their greatest excitement each day is looking forward to getting off work. This isn't living, it's existing and we've all seen these people and watched as this life path sucks the life out of them. They allow themselves to become victims who find fault, accept mediocrity and become cynical. If that's not the life you want to live...Make a change, choose a path that lights you up and that provides you with the opportunity for those bright moments.

Life is best when taking a path that causes you to wake up everyday excited, looking forward to doing what you will be doing that day. Find a path that excites you. Understand life isn't about making money and it isn't about accumulating possessions. It is about living with passion and giving yourself the opportunity to experience the bright moments.

The victories that produce the greatest bight moments, the lasting, life changing bright moments, are found in helping, serving and caring for others. Everyone has the ability to do this each day and fill each day with bright moments. You have to choose to be less selfish, more giving and stop serving yourself first to open the door to a life of bright moments.

The greatest deception happens when you attach your victories to achievements, accomplishments, wealth or possessions. These things can produce feelings of euphoria but will be fleeting and leave you feeling empty and searching for more without the experience of the true victory and bright moment of making a difference to another person. The quality of your life and depth of your happiness will come from the deep relationships formed in serving others...these are the brightest moments.

Be prepared, you'll find the bright moments on a path that has obstacles. The path that can provide these bright moments will be filled with things you'd rather not do...Things most people won't do. Every path that can provide these bright moments has obstacles and challenges but it has those wonderful bright moments that make life so fulfilling.

The question to ask yourself, "Do I want to do the work, put forth the effort and pay the price to experience those bright moments?". Answer yes, and I promise you, if don't quit until you experience one, you'll be thankful and get busy working to create the next one.

Five Power Leadership

LEADERS SEEK RESPECT BEFORE APPROVAL OR FRIENDSHIP!

FIRST POWER...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

SECOND POWER...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

THIRD POWER...CARE
     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

FOUTH POWER...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

FIFTH POWER...CHANGE
     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!