StrategyDriven » business

Standards and Expectations – Defining Performance Standards, part 1 of 8

StrategyDriven — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 11:03:25 +0000

Standards and expectations define how work is to be performed; providing guidance for the consistent, efficient, value-based execution of tasks. At the outset, developing a comprehensive set of performance standards often appears to be an overwhelming and daunting task as employees within even the ’least complex’ organizations perform countless different activities every day. However, it is not intended that performance standards be developed for every conceivable activity. Rather, standards should be formulated for those activities reflecting organizational values, implementing corporate strategy, and presenting significant risk. The documented basis behind this finite set of standards provides the guidance needed for employees to make rational judgments about the conduct of less significant activities.

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StrategyDriven Podcast Special Edition 21e – An Interview with Duane Sparks, author of Sales Strategy from the Inside Out

StrategyDriven — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 11:16:20 +0000

StrategyDriven Podcasts focus on the tools and techniques executives and managers can use to improve their organization’s alignment and accountability to ultimately achieve superior results. These podcasts elaborate on the best practice and warning flag articles on the StrategyDriven website.

Special Edition 21e – An Interview with Duane Sparks, author of Sales Strategy from the Inside Out explores how businesses employing a consultative sales method realize dramaticly increased revenues. During our discussion, Duane Sparks, author of Sales Strategy From The Inside Out: How Complex Selling Really Works and Chairman and Founder of The Sales Board, shares with us his insights and illustrative examples regarding:

the five decisions individuals go through before making the final buying decision
how to bring other team members into the sales process and the benefits of this practice
determining the right number of client needs identification interactions before presenting a solution balanced with the client’s desire to hear the solution given their time investment
role of the sales professional in orchestrating solution presentations made by client personnel

Additional Information

In addition to the invaluable selling skills insight Duane shares in Sales Strategy From The Inside Out and this special edition podcast, please visit his company’s Sales Training or Sales Management site. To discover why this selling skill is so effective at maximizing sales productivity, purchase Duane’s book: Sales Strategy From The Inside Out.

Complimenting Sales Strategy From The Inside Out, are Duane’s four other books on the consultative sales process including:

Read a Summary of the above Sales Books.

Final Request…

The strength of our community grows with the additional insights brought by our expanding member base. Please consider voting for us on Podcast Alley by clicking here. Casting your vote for the StrategyDriven Podcast improves our ranking and helps us attract new listeners which, in turn, helps us grow our community. Thank you again for listening to the StrategyDriven Podcast!

About the Author

Duane Sparks, author of Sales Strategy From The Inside Out, is Chairman and Founder of The Sales Board, a Minneapolis-based strategic sales training company that has trained and certified more than 350,000 salespeople in more than 3,000 groups in the system and skills of Action Selling. He has written five sales books, personally facilitated more than 300 Action Selling training sessions and continues to engage in the business and art of the strategic sales process. Read Duane’s full biography and the history of Action Selling Sales Management Training.

The Dos and Don’ts of Networking

StrategyDriven — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 11:09:57 +0000

Do treat everyone you meet with respect.
Do ask questions of other people about their business.
Do try to meet 3-5 new people at every event.
Do carry business cards wherever you go.
Do follow up when you meet people you want to get to know better.
Don’t talk too much about yourself or your products or services the first time you meet someone (don’t sell).
Don’t stand or sit with people from your own company.
Don’t arrive late or leave early.
Don’t think meeting someone one time makes them part of your network.
Don’t talk about religion, politics, or the economy with those you just met.

About the Author

Thom Singer is the author of six books on the power of business relationships and networking, including: Some Assembly Required: How to Make, Grow and Keep Your Business Relationships (New Year Publishing, 2007), The ABC’s of Networking (New Year Publishing, 2007), Some Assembly Required: A Networking Guide for Women (New Year Publishing, 2008), and Batteries Not Included: 66 Tips to Energize Your Career (New Year Publishing, 2009). He also writes the Some Assembly Required Blog and is the creator of the free online Networking Quotient Quiz (www.nqquiz.com). Singer has over 18 years of sales, marketing, public relations, business development and networking experience in the business community, having worked for several Fortune 500 Companies and AM LAW 100 law firms. He regularly speaks at corporate seminars around the country teaching professionals the importance of cultivating business relationships to further their careers. Singer also leads training sessions as “The Conference Networking Catalyst” at large multi-day seminars focused on helping people make lasting connections with those they meet at the event. For more information about Thom Singer, visit http://www.thomsinger.com.

Top 5 Networking Tips if Your Company is Going Through Layoffs

StrategyDriven — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 11:18:08 +0000

Stay positive. Regardless of if you get laid off or stay in your job, your attitude will have an impact on your future. Try to look for the positive and find ways to cheer up others who might be having a tough time with the changes.
Start networking early. If you wait until you get the pink slip you will have missed the opportunities to forge strong relationships. If you only network when you need something (like a new job), then people will see you are one sided in your networking. Show up and try to help others with their goals before you need their help.
Do not say bad things about your company. If your company is experiencing tough times, do not be gossiping inside or outside the business about what is happening. People are always cautious about those who gossip and spread bad news. They worry about what you say about them when they are not in the room, and this will not lead them to help you later if you are in search of a new job. Who would want to hire someone who tells stories all over town about their last employer?
Be visible inside the company and around town. Out of sight is out of mind. Hiding in your cubicle and thinking that by being invisible will help you keep your job might backfire. Doing good work and completing your projects is very important in tough times, but do not rationalize that that is all you have to do to stay employed.
Make sure you have your resume and LinkedIn profile up to date. Do not wait until you are laid off to update these critical job seeking tools. Make sure that you have everything up to date so that you can immediately use them if you are suddenly laid off.

About the Author

Tactical Execution Best Practice 4 – Eliminate Redundant Work

StrategyDriven — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 11:09:18 +0000

Whether in an economic recession or boom, resources are always limited and redundant work always an unnecessary resource expenditure. Yet no matter how hard leaders try to eliminate redundant work, these practices seem to reappear; often the result of well intentioned actions to correct a performance deficiency or misguided adherence to a legacy practice. Therefore, all leaders from the C-suite to the shop floor must relentlessly wage an ongoing war against unnecessary duplicate work.

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New Century Leaders

StrategyDriven — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 15:15:19 +0000

What kind of new world leaders should we expect?

Here is one magnifying and surprising solution. I believe we need to teach future business leaders that in our carbon and capital constrained world it is now mission critical to refine all the tools of business to compete on price, quality and social needs. Masters of business administration must also become masters of social needs – from avian and swine flu to energy and environmental matters. I believe this boils down to training to compete for resources and the best minds, while teaching some cultural restraint and leadership skills.

The Surprising Solution: Creating Possibility in a Swift and Severe World
by Bruce Piasecki

The world today is more swift, more severe… and has never been more full of opportunity.

The rapid wave of change is sweeping outdated strategies away quicker than ever before, but those who can get in front of this wave will achieve untold success and customer loyalty. And the solution for how to get in front of this wave is as inspiring as it is surprising.

The Surprising Solution describes the revolution in business in which the corporations that can best address environmental and social issues by creating superior products will thrive and profit in this new world. Discover how to take hold of this vital new force in business and improve both the world and your bottom line at the same time.

“The Surprising Solution is a must-read during this time of economic turmoil.”
- Steve Percy, Former CEO of BP America and Coordinating Lead Author of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment

This new century leader must become a Social Response Capitalist, profiting from new forms of energy, new means of mobility, and exceptional and available kinds of information technologies. I want leaders that can produce solutions for multinationals as well as the many key small innovators we need in renewable energy.

Consider the recent rash of corporate and financial abuses, and the sheer ethical stupidity of some strategies and actions.

I am now convinced that businesses that rule by the brute force of technical and terrain advantage alone will slip in their competitive advantage. It takes the grace, force and wit of a diplomat to gain permission to grow. Life as we know it, and society as we expect it, are not possible without such realignment.

I believe the ultimate definition of a trusted new century leader is someone who can embed social values into products in a strategic and consistent way.

I believe that those who can embody these values will thrive in what I call the S-Frontier, where the severity of global markets, and the swiftness of information dominate normal business planning and decision-making.

The leaders we can trust often develop a vivid track-record of achieving such surprising results. Their new products never stray from being efficient, safe, convenient, and affordable.

CREATING SOCIAL RESPONSE CAPITALISTS

I now view three prevailing themes of leadership as boundary conditions for achieving success in today’s S-Frontier. Social Response Capitalists need to:

Demonstrate a remarkable tolerance for discomforting information, and then thrive on constant learning. These attributes allow them to balance the three competing imperatives of lowering price, improving quality, and responding to emerging social needs. They can sense what the needs of society will be in the near future and quickly adapt corporate strategies in order to engineer new products that can then reshape the market for their goods and services.
Achieve power through applied common sense. These social leaders know when to ignore the signals of distress emanating from their own corporate staff and Wall Street. I describe this uncanny ability as “knowing when to play by the rules, and when to change the game,” and a unique combination of panic and resolve. Applied common sense means being open to input from a vast array of sources, but still being smart enough to know how to ignore the sirens screaming all around you about your corporate strategy and do what you know is right.
Recognize that their new business models and social goals need wide circulation. Their need for spreading the word often takes on a missionary zeal. Baseball great Yogi Berra once quipped: “You can observe a lot just by watching.” Like plants that disseminate plenty of seeds to ensure survival, social capitalists are on a mission to spread the word about new paths of growth. They are infusing their firm with a new sense of social purpose beyond finance alone, and they want everyone, rightfully, to know about it.

Such is the stuff of the best corporate strategists. They find something fabulous in complexity and challenge, identify and secure the changes that must be made to adapt to the market and the social needs, then share its meanings and value in a visible and highly social set of ways. They apply the newly discovered value in a systematic and relentless way across the company. In a way, social response capitalists are like Archimedes when he said give me a lever large enough and I will move this world. In the end leadership is always about taking the intelligent risks to make the needed lasting and possible.

About the Author

Bruce Piasecki is the President and Founder of the AHC Group Inc. (www.AHCGroup.com), which since 1981 has provided general management consulting and leadership benchmarking workshops for a range of corporate affiliates and clients. His latest book is The Surprising Solution: Creating Possibility in a Swift and Severe World. To read Bruce’s complete biography, click here.

Self Assessment Program Best Practice 7 – Be Prepared from the Start

StrategyDriven — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:35:23 +0000

Self assessments aggregate huge amounts of data in order to provide a very few high value insights. (See Figure 1: Data Refinement and Consolidation Model below) As an assessment progresses, evaluators often feel increasingly overwhelmed by the volume of data they must sift through, organize, and analyze. Time seems to slip away and pressure to find the key insights mounts; making the objective appear to be that of finding a needle in a haystack with only a moment’s notice. To be successful requires thoughtful, deliberate preparation.

How to Prepare for a Self Assessment

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StrategyDriven Leadership Conversation Episode 2 – Profile of the Effective Leader

StrategyDriven — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 06:22:59 +0000

StrategyDriven Leadership Conversations focus on the values and behaviors characteristic of highly effective leaders. Complimenting the StrategyDriven Management & Leadership articles, these conversations examine the real world challenges managers face every day that are not easily solved with a new or redesigned process and instead demand the application of soft leadership skills to achieve a positive outcome.

Episode 2 – Profile of the Effective Leader introduces the profile of an effective by exploring the personal traits and behaviors exhibited by these remarkable individuals.

Additional Information

Click here to download a list of the principles, qualities, attributes, and competencies of an effective leader.

Final Request…

The strength of our community grows with the additional insights brought by our expanding member base. Please consider voting for us on Podcast Alley by clicking here. Casting your vote for the StrategyDriven Leadership Conversation improves our ranking and helps us attract new listeners which, in turn, helps us grow our community.

Thank you again for listening to the StrategyDriven Leadership Conversation!

About the Contributor

Howard T. Dickens Jr. is a Principal Contributor at P Enterprises and Host of the StrategyDriven Leadership Conversation. A dynamic public speaker, facilitator, and training consultant, he has shared his insights with hundreds of executives and managers at all organizational levels; helping them develop motivational leadership behaviors, cultural competence, and the ability to manage workplace conflict. To read Howard’s complete biography, click here.

StrategyDriven Podcast Special Edition 23 – An Interview with Susan Scott, author of Fierce Leadership

StrategyDriven — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 11:22:48 +0000

StrategyDriven Podcasts focus on the tools and techniques executives and managers can use to improve their organization’s alignment and accountability to ultimately achieve superior results. These podcasts elaborate on the best practice and warning flag articles on the StrategyDriven website.

Special Edition 23 – An Interview with Susan Scott, author of Fierce Leadership explores how how executives and managers can transform their organizations through candid, meaningful dialogue with each other, their employees, and their customers. During our discussion, Susan Scott, author of Fierce Leadership: A Bold Alternative to the Worst “Best” Practices of Business Today and Founder and CEO of Fierce, Inc., shares with us her insights and illustrative examples regarding:

what Fierce Leadership is
developing and using ‘squid eye‘ to recognize business practices that challenge individual and organizational success
engaging in ‘mineral rights‘ deep dive converations to gain full understanding of a situation including one’s personal contributions and impacts
the six worst ‘best’ business practices and their Fierce Leadership alternatives
how to promote Fierce Leadership and Fierce Converstations throughout one’s organization

Additional Information

In addition to the outstanding insights Susan shares in Fierce Leadership and this special edition podcast are the additional resources accessible from her organization’s website at www.FierceInc.com and her books’ websites at www.FierceLeadership.com and www.FierceConversations.com. Susan’s book, Fierce Leadership, can be purchased by clicking here.

Complimenting Fierce Leadership, is Susan’s book, Fierce Conversations: Achieving Success at Work and in Life One Conversation at a Time. Fierce Conversations can be purchased by clicking here.

Final Request…

The strength of our community grows with the additional insights brought by our expanding member base. Please consider voting for us on Podcast Alley by clicking here. Casting your vote for the StrategyDriven Podcast improves our ranking and helps us attract new listeners which, in turn, helps us grow our community. Thank you again for listening to the StrategyDriven Podcast !

About the Author

Susan Scott, author of Fierce Leadership, is Founder and CEO of the global training company Fierce, Inc.. For over two decades, Susan has helped executives at companies such as Microsoft, Coke, Starbucks, Cisco, and Google transform their companies by teaching them how to engage in more vibrant dialogue with one another, their employees, and their customers. She is a globally recognized thought leader, the bestselling author of Fierce Conversations, and recipient of the 2008 Stevie award for Entrepreneur of the Year. To read Susan’s full biography, click here.

StrategyDriven Podcasts Receive Top Honors in September

StrategyDriven — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 06:31:52 +0000

The StrategyDriven Team would like to thank you, our listeners, for helping us achieve the third place ranking for the StrategyDriven Podcast and the fourth place ranking for the StrategyDriven Leadership Conversation podcast from among the over 2600 business podcasts listed on Podcast Alley in September!

In each episode, co-hosts Lucas Ives, Nathan Ives, and Howard Dickens present a richer and deeper exploration of the principle, best practice, and warning flag articles found on the StrategyDriven website. Their discussions identify benefits, define implementation methods, and provide examples to help leaders increase alignment and heighten accountability within their organizations.

The strength of our community grows with the additional insights brought by our expanding member base. With your support, our community of listeners and readers has grown tremendously in the past several months. Please help us continue to grow by recommending the StrategyDriven Podcast to family, friends, and colleagues who you believe will benefit from listening.

Additionally, please consider voting for us monthly on Podcast Alley by clicking here. Casting your vote for the StrategyDriven Podcast improves our monthly ranking and helps us attract new listeners which, in turn, grows our community.

Thank you again for listening to and voting for the StrategyDriven Podcast !