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The Advisor’s Corner – How Do I Lead Those Older Than Me?

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How Do I Lead Those Older Than Me?Question:

How do I lead direct reports who are quite a bit older than me?

StrategyDriven Response: (by Roxi Hewertson, StrategyDriven Principal Contributor)

Indeed, the chances of leading people senior in age and experience to you are quite high given the delayed retirements and demographics we see today. This is not a bad thing; in fact, if you are good leader, you will welcome the diversity in perspective, experience, and wisdom you can utilize from within your team. In my career I rarely held a leadership role without managing people older than me, until I became the older one! There are a few key things to keep in mind to get the best from your more senior staff.

Everything we do happens through our relationships, and how we behave impacts each of those relationships. When you create a trusting, respectful relationship with your staff, you will reap the rewards over and over again. It’s also about the conversation.

You already have the ‘authority’ if you’re the boss, and frankly, if you pull the “I’m the boss” card out more than 10% of the time, and even then, only when there is no other way to get something essential to happen, you are blowing it. Just like anyone else, you have to earn respect and trust… it doesn’t come with your title. If you are feeling insecure, uncertain, and less than adequate as you carry out your role, do whatever you need to do to learn enough to feel confident. Take classes, read… and oh, by the way, your greatest teachers might just be on your staff. Welcome their wisdom and make sure they know how much you appreciate it and them.

Here are 5 things you can do that will signal you are listening and respecting – and they apply to ANY of your staff:

  1. Be EXPLICIT about your expectations, how you will measure success, and then acknowledge their performance – whether good or not so good.
  2. ASK far more than you tell. LISTEN to your people, ask them what they know, want, feel, and need.
  3. Remove the word “but” from most of your conversations – say “and” instead or end the first sentence with a period and start a new one. When people hear “but” they don’t believe anything you said before it.
  4. Say “We” 10 times more often than “I”, including in your emails.
  5. Do not say “No” first. At least listen and say what more you need or agree that you’ll at least think about it.

The fundamentals of building a highly effective team come into play here, no matter the demographics or personalities. When you know how to create safety, trust, and group synergy, you will engage everyone on your team and get the most of their talent. So ask yourself – do you know where you want to take your team? Have you made time to get to know each of your people, what motivates them, and what they love or don’t love about their jobs? Have you asked for their wisdom, letting them know the team can only succeed with everyone contributing? Have you honored their contributions?

Bottom line – every individual has a story, a whole life, and is motivated by different things. When you build a trusting relationship and establish you truly care about that person, their wisdom, and their contributions, you will get a boatload of help, respect, and you may just learn a thing or two along the way!

About the Author

Leadership authority Roxana (Roxi) Hewertson is a no-nonsense business veteran revered for her nuts-and-bolts, tell-it-like-it-is approach and practical, out-of-the-box insights that help both emerging and expert managers, executives and owners boost quantifiable job performance in various mission critical facets of business. Through AskRoxi.com, Roxi — “the Dear Abby of Leadership” — imparts invaluable free advice to managers and leaders at all levels, from the bullpen to the boardroom, to help them solve problems, become more effective and realize a higher measure of business and career success.

The StrategyDriven website was created to provide members of our community with insights to the actions that help create the shared vision, focus, and commitment needed to improve organizational alignment and accountability for the achievement of superior results. We look forward to answering your strategic planning and tactical business execution questions. Please email your questions to [email protected].

Windshield time. Before and after opportunities.

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All outside salespeople have ‘windshield time’ – the time you spend behind the wheel, or in some form of transportation, going to and from appointments.

Windshield time is a critical time both for the anticipation of the sales call and for the aftermath of the sales call.

REALITY CHECK: How are you taking advantage of that valuable time? Here are the options: Waste it. Invest it. Your choice.

Most salespeople have a habit of doing the same thing when they get in the car. They either listen to their favorite radio station or, perhaps better, they listen to something that they can learn from.

What do you listen to?
What should you listen to?

Be prepared to learn and be inspired. All at times, have that ONE CD or that ONE SET of CDs that best resonate with you.

Here are two of my all-time favorites:

  1. The Art of Exceptional Living by Jim Rohn. (I carried this set of CDs in my car for a decade, and will listen to it again this year.)
  2. The Strangest Secret by Earl Nightingale. Total inspiration. Listen once a month.

REALTY: Windshield time is your best time to prepare mentally and emotionally before the call and review what happened after the call.

I have 7.5 more ideas that I’d like to share with you about windshield time:

IDEA 1: On your way to the call, identify the first two or three questions you want to ask your prospect. Voice to text them to yourself. Start the mental preparation for the call. I promise when you generate two or three questions, you will also generate an idea or two.

IDEA 2: Make slides for each question before you go inside so that you are certain to ask them. My first slide always reads, “Before we get started, I’d like to ask you a couple of questions.” The second you generate the idea, voice to text yourself the content and then make the slide in the lobby when you arrive. (This requires getting there early, not ‘on time.’)

IDEA 3: Voice to text as you think of other things. This will both ensure you remember the thoughts and it will clear your mind. I cannot stress enough the importance of ZERO MENTAL CLUTTER before the sale. Get rid of excess thought, no matter how small, so your focus is 100% on the customer and the sale.

IDEA 4: Pump it up. Listen to your favorite music just before you enter the call. Get happy, get excited, get your rhythm, put some bounce in your step, get your enthusiasm set on ‘high.’ Music can do all of these things.

IDEA 5: Before the call, mentally establish your expected outcome. Think about the detail of it. Expect a ‘yes’ before you start.

IDEA 6: Listen to the recording of your sales presentation as soon as you dare. You’ll laugh and cry. It’s the biggest reality check of your life, and the best private coaching session you’ll ever receive.

IDEA 7: Record the “wish-I-woulda – crap-I-shoulda” for a minute or two immediately after it’s over. Take note of your impression of what happened, good or bad.

IDEA 7.5: Record any promises you made, especially as relates to additional info you need to send to the customer as well as deadlines for follow-up.

NOTE: Never actually text while driving. If you don’t have voice to text capability, pull over to the side of the road.

PRE-CALL REALITY: Once you have a few questions prepared, a couple of ideas documented, and your favorite rock song playing in your head, your confidence level entering the sales call will triple.

POST-CALL REALITY: Once you ‘download’ the after-the-call reality and listen to the recording, document what you should have done and document what still needs to be done so your mind will be fertile for the next call.

BIGGEST IDEA and AHA!: Win or lose the sale? Celebrate that outcome either way. Recognize that proper investment of windshield time will give you a hell of a lot more YES! celebrations.

Reprinted with permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer.

About the Author

Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of The Sales Bible, Customer Satisfaction is Worthless Customer Loyalty is Priceless, The Little Red Book of Selling, The Little Red Book of Sales Answers, The Little Black Book of Connections, The Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude, The Little Green Book of Getting Your Way, The Little Platinum Book of Cha-Ching, The Little Teal Book of Trust, The Little Book of Leadership, and Social BOOM! His website, www.gitomer.com, will lead you to more information about training and seminars, or email him personally at [email protected].

Four More Words That Will ‘Shape’ my 2014

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Last year I posted four words on my bathroom mirror: FINISH, WRITE, SHAPE, and YES.

Based on last year’s success, this year I decided to create two four-word categories. One for achievement and one for improvement. Not ‘goals’ in the sense that you may be thinking about – rather intentions that I consciously and subconsciously work on every day, and build success all year long.

By posting the words on my bathroom mirror, I consciously see them each day, and subconsciously think about them and act on them regularly. Because they’re right in front of me every morning and every evening, they are inescapable mental confrontations. Oh, and the process works.

After I explain each achievement and improvement word I have selected for this year, I’ll provide a lesson that you can incorporate into your life as you select your word or words. The lesson is the motive behind the word so you can use the same principle as you generate your words.

Last week I wrote about my four words on achievement. They were: ADVISOR, DIGITAL, POWER and TIME. (If you missed it, you can get both parts by entering the words IMPROVE ACHIEVE in the GitBit box at www.gitomer.com.)

This week it’s four words about improvement. Improvement means GET BETTER at what you’re already doing. If you’re looking to start something new, and make it happen, that’s achievement. For example, when you want to achieve your sales plan, you must improve your sales skills, presentation skills, or your networking skills.

On the improvement side of life, my four words are:
INSTAGRAM – BLOG – SHAPE – BEST

INSTAGRAM – It’s the new Facebook. Thousands of teenagers are abandoning Facebook every hour and refocusing their social efforts on Instagram. Interestingly, Microsoft Word, the word processing program I use to write with, thinks Instagram is a misspelled word. That’s a pretty good indicator of where Microsoft is in the social media world: nowhere. You have to figure there’s got to be a pretty good reason Facebook paid a reported one billion dollars for Instagram. For you as a salesperson and/or a business person, there’s got to be a pretty good reason as well.

Here’s what I intend to improve this year: I already have a business and personal account. My personal account is jeffreygitomer. My business account is gitomer. I want to let my family, my customers, my friends, the readers of my books, the followers of my blog, the subscribers to my YouTube channel – all of my social connections – have a chance to view me as a person and as a business person. And you need to consider the same. Every day or so I post a picture to my personal account. And every day it is my intention to post one meaningful quote on my business account. My intention is to give my followers something to think about, something to learn about, something to smile about, and something to replicate. I try to be both a lesson, and an idea.

LESSON: All of your connections both business and personal need to see your human side, and her intellectual side. There’s an opportunity in Instagram for you to create a leadership position.

BLOG – I intend to make my blog much more personal this year. On salesblog.com (pretty good URL, eh?) I’ll be posting on-the-road insights from my travels, kitchen thinking, morning thinking, ideas I captured from reading, and the most important ideas I’m capturing from and for my daughters and granddaughters.

LESSON: A blog is a place to document and expose. When you put yourself out on the Internet, blogging is the best way to be found. Hundreds of millions of people have jumped on that bandwagon and will stay there. The key to blogging is consistency. At the moment I post two or three times a week. You should begin by doing the same. Just a paragraph or two, but make sure they contain keywords that others can find as they search about you, your products and services, and your company.

SHAPE – Last year I failed to lose the weight I promised myself I would. This year I have a personal trainer and a new eating habit set in motion. My mantra will be better health leads to increased wealth.

LESSON: I didn’t achieve my goal. I didn’t follow through on my own intentions. But the lesson is not failure. The lesson is persistence. Just because I didn’t do it last year, doesn’t mean I won’t get it done. If you don’t meet a goal, if you don’t achieve your intentions, keep moving baby!

BEST – One thing that the BEST people I know have in common – they’re all seeking to become better. My best skills on the business side of my life are: selling, speaking, writing, humor, friendliness, and creativity. The reason I’m excellent at those skills is that I seek to become better at them every day. My driver is very simple, I just ask myself this one question: Am I doing the best I can right now?

LESSON: Ask yourself this question after EVERY meeting, phone call, project, and social and social media outreach: Is this the BEST I can do?

Hopefully the words I have chosen for improvement and achievement, and the lessons I have provided, will inspire you to write and define your words for the year. Interestingly, you most likely mentally know what they are, but have yet to bring them to the visual surface as Post-it Notes on your bathroom mirror.

Want both columns and my bathroom postings from last year? Sure you do! Go to www.gitomer.com and enter the words IMPROVE ACHIEVE in the GitBit box

Reprinted with permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer.

About the Author

Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of The Sales Bible, Customer Satisfaction is Worthless Customer Loyalty is Priceless, The Little Red Book of Selling, The Little Red Book of Sales Answers, The Little Black Book of Connections, The Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude, The Little Green Book of Getting Your Way, The Little Platinum Book of Cha-Ching, The Little Teal Book of Trust, The Little Book of Leadership, and Social BOOM! His website, www.gitomer.com, will lead you to more information about training and seminars, or email him personally at [email protected].

The Advisor’s Corner – How Do I Deal with a Calendar Full of Meetings?

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How Do I Deal with a Calendar Full of Meetings?Question:

How do I deal with a calendar full of meetings that are wasting my time?

StrategyDriven Response: (by Roxi Hewertson, StrategyDriven Principal Contributor)

I love meetings… when and only when they produce something useful. When they don’t, I stop going. Seriously, I gave up useless meetings just like I gave up greasy food, cold turkey, so to speak!

Dave Barry once said, “If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be ‘meetings’.” Well, lousy meetings anyway.

Indeed, there are great meetings and important ones I’d never want to miss. People need to congregate and exchanges things. We need to network, learn, collaborate, decide, discuss, chew on ideas, mind-meld, team-build, brainstorm and have fun together. There are plenty of fabulous reasons why people should have meetings, gatherings, and get togethers.

Yet, we have a serious meeting epidemic in this country. This is not my opinion; it’s a fact. Smart people study this stuff, and the reality is, we have been meeting for more hours each and every year since they started keeping track back in the 1950’s. It’s a bit like global warming – it creeps up on you and before you know it, your life is one big meeting desert or tsunami or both, at the same time, in the same meeting!

Email didn’t fix it. Whiz-bang meeting software didn’t fix it. Today, you can just throw on a t-shirt, sit at your computer, and be in a meeting with virtually anyone, anywhere, anytime. Yes, it’s a short commute, and convenient, but now instead of commuting, you are simply in another meeting. How’s that working for you?

There is a whole planet full of people suffering from bad meetings. You’d think it was contagious. Well, you’d be right. The way meetings are run in your organization IS a result of your internal culture, meeting protocols, and the meeting skills of the person running them. Every new person coming into the system generally conforms to those norms. So… ask yourself, “How healthy and productive is the meeting virus I am passing around?”

For those meetings you attend but don’t run, remember, it’s YOUR calendar. So take control of it. The next time you are about to agree to a meeting, try asking yourself these 5 questions:

  1. WHY are we having this meeting; what is the goal; what are the deliverables?
  2. WHOSE meeting is it?
  3. WHAT kind of a meeting do we need to have? In person, on the phone, virtual, standing up, off-site, formal, informal, etcetera.
  4. WHO should be there? Why?
  5. WHAT are our meeting ‘norms,’ and do I like them? If not, why am I going to this meeting and/or what am I going to do about it?

Once you decide, yes, you need a meeting, you need a purpose and an agenda. Every item on your agenda should have one of three purposes or a combination of them or it shouldn’t be there at all.

Information – Discussion -­ Decision

Information: no more than 20% of any meeting should be spent on information sharing – there are plenty of other and cheaper ways to share information other than meeting time.

Discussion: means getting input and ideas, hearing from the people in the group. Make sure you have a method to do that well.

Decision-making: use best practices and ask all the important questions when a decision needs to be made

Take control of your life and work by taking control of the time you spend in meetings that don’t matter, and making the time you do spend in meetings an investment that DOES matter.

About the Author

Leadership authority Roxana (Roxi) Hewertson is a no-nonsense business veteran revered for her nuts-and-bolts, tell-it-like-it-is approach and practical, out-of-the-box insights that help both emerging and expert managers, executives and owners boost quantifiable job performance in various mission critical facets of business. Through AskRoxi.com, Roxi — “the Dear Abby of Leadership” — imparts invaluable free advice to managers and leaders at all levels, from the bullpen to the boardroom, to help them solve problems, become more effective and realize a higher measure of business and career success.

The StrategyDriven website was created to provide members of our community with insights to the actions that help create the shared vision, focus, and commitment needed to improve organizational alignment and accountability for the achievement of superior results. We look forward to answering your strategic planning and tactical business execution questions. Please email your questions to [email protected].

Post words. Achieve big. Build success. Day-by-Day.

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Last year I posted four words on my bathroom mirror: FINISH, WRITE, SHAPE, and YES.

My results?

  • I finished the 21.5 Unbreakable Laws of Selling.
  • I wrote 1,000 words a week and documented hundreds of ideas.
  • My shape is still plus 20 pounds, so that word will remain this year.
  • I maintained my YES! Attitude, but seeing the word every morning and evening in my bathroom mirror helped.

Not bad achievement results – but still being 20 pounds overweight shows a flaw in my self-discipline. Not good.

Based on last year’s success, this year I decided to create two four-word categories. One for achievement and one for improvement. Not ‘goals’ in the sense that you may be thinking about. Rather, intentions that I consciously and subconsciously work on every day to build success all year long.

By posting the words on my bathroom mirror, I consciously see them each day, and subconsciously think about them and act on them regularly. Because they’re right in front of me every morning and every evening, they are inescapable mental confrontations. Oh, and the process works!

After I explain each word I have selected for this year, I’ll provide a lesson you can incorporate as you select your word(s). The lesson is the motive behind the word so you can use the same principle as you generate your words.

On the achievement side of life, my four words are:
ADVISOR – DIGITAL – POWER – TIME

ADVISOR – I launched the Gitomer Certified Advisor program in the fall of 2013. Instant success. I’ve certified more than 100 advisors. They’re independent businesspeople who are now marketing their sales and personal development services using my intellectual property, both online and in the classroom. In 2014 I will intensify the program and the process until there are 500 certified advisors globally.

LESSON: Once you have a successful idea, program, game plan, or process – strengthen it. Pick an achievement target, and figure out what you have to do weekly to make it a reality. What’s one word that describes your biggest achievement target?

DIGITAL – Convert all paper, CD, and DVD to digital. Create financial and distribution opportunities ONLY available to digital information dissemination. The world is not quite ready for all digital, but I will be.

LESSON: Don’t stay attached to old technology or products even though they have brought success and profit in the past. Companies like Yellow Pages, Blackberry, and AOL have buried themselves by not advancing soon enough. Companies like Amazon, Zappos, and Apple have marched to the head of the class by innovating BEFORE the market did, and they set the standard for others to follow. When someone says, “It’s just like an iPad” – what they’re really saying is, “iPad set the standard.” I want someone to say, “I’m just like Gitomer.” What’s one word that describes the standard you are trying to set?

POWER – This year I intend to capitalize on the convergent power of reputation, brand, intellectual property, and online distribution. Content is more than king. It is desired and bought by those in need. And with online, on-demand video, concentration on marketing and distribution are on the top of my list.

LESSON: Your experience has given you both success and expertise. What expertise and success can you combine that will give you a market-dominant opportunity? What’s one word that describes what you’re trying to capitalize on?

TIME – My most precious resource – and yours! This year I intend to take control of it and make it my own. Not manage it, rather allocate it to things I WANT to do, rather than things I HAVE to do. I want to write, speak, travel, learn, read, and have meaningful family time. It’s the subtle difference between ‘spending’ time and ‘investing’ time. I have written about time allocation before, now it’s a matter of taking ownership of it.

LESSON: Wasted time is at the top of lost resources for most people. Don’t let that be you. In 1889, Orison Swett Marden wrote, “Do not realize the immense value of utilizing spare minutes.” What’s a word that offers you greater investment in your most precious, non-recoverable resource?

Hopefully the words I have chosen and the lessons I have provided will inspire you to write and define your words for the year. Interestingly, you most likely know in your mind what they are, but have yet to bring them to the visual surface as Post-it Notes on your bathroom mirror.

On the improvement side of life, my four words are:
INSTAGRAM – BLOG – SHAPE – BEST

Next week!

Reprinted with permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer.

About the Author

Jeffrey Gitomer is the author of The Sales Bible, Customer Satisfaction is Worthless Customer Loyalty is Priceless, The Little Red Book of Selling, The Little Red Book of Sales Answers, The Little Black Book of Connections, The Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude, The Little Green Book of Getting Your Way, The Little Platinum Book of Cha-Ching, The Little Teal Book of Trust, The Little Book of Leadership, and Social BOOM! His website, www.gitomer.com, will lead you to more information about training and seminars, or email him personally at [email protected].