In 6 months, we will be thinking about New Year’s 2014! You may not think twice about your New Year’s resolutions at this point in the year. Yet, just 6 months ago, everything seemed possible!
Losing 10 pounds, quitting smoking, finding a new job, and taking a new class were achievable goals. For many people, once they accomplished their goals they quickly set new ones. For others, however, demanding lives, frustration at the lack of immediate success, and the passage of time may have pushed those goals to the “back burner.”
However, many motivational psychologists say revisiting resolutions at the midyear point and taking even small steps to reinvigorate them can boost our determination, making them achievable before the year is over. From this “second chance” perspective, the opportunity exists to refine those original goals that may have been too big or overwhelming.
Whatever your original New Year’s resolutions, revisiting them will re-engage and energize you. Owning them again with whatever “tweaks” you need to apply can give you the drive to see them through this time. With unexpected benefits along the way, a feeling of even great satisfaction may follow in January 2014 when, because you’ve achieved your goals, new resolutions will be in order!
Thursday, June 27, 2013
Tuesday, June 25, 2013
Hire slow, fire fast…
What do college football coaches spend up to 70% of their time doing?
Watching game film?
Coaching players?
Preparing game plans?
No. College football coaches spend up to 70% of their time recruiting talent to play on their team.
Does that surprise you? If you hire like most companies do, then it probably did. Most companies hire the wrong way. They hire quickly and hold on to poor performers too long.
The best thing a great leader can do is always be recruiting and have a constant flow of talent to evaluate and hire. Your goal should be to hire slowly – after a structured and careful assessment and evaluation process – and then don’t hesitate to let people go who have not shown performance.
The key here is that if you have a steady flow of talent and candidates to choose from, then you’ll be much less likely to make quick and ill-advised hiring decisions. Plus, you’ll be less likely to hold on to poor performers who are likely to never make it in your environment.
Watching game film?
Coaching players?
Preparing game plans?
No. College football coaches spend up to 70% of their time recruiting talent to play on their team.
Does that surprise you? If you hire like most companies do, then it probably did. Most companies hire the wrong way. They hire quickly and hold on to poor performers too long.
The best thing a great leader can do is always be recruiting and have a constant flow of talent to evaluate and hire. Your goal should be to hire slowly – after a structured and careful assessment and evaluation process – and then don’t hesitate to let people go who have not shown performance.
The key here is that if you have a steady flow of talent and candidates to choose from, then you’ll be much less likely to make quick and ill-advised hiring decisions. Plus, you’ll be less likely to hold on to poor performers who are likely to never make it in your environment.
Monday, June 17, 2013
Advice to new graduates: Work In Sales!
There’s a persistent perception that sales is a “last resort” job. I don’t know where it comes from, but I get angry when I hear people say, “I’m just a sales rep.” When you choose a sales career, you are not settling for a second-rate job.
Selling is challenging and you should be proud of your job. What you may not have thought of, however, is that sales experience is vitally important if you ever hope to have an executive level job. Surprised? When I work with professionals near the top of their non-sales careers and eager to move to the C-Suite, they often lack sales experience.
You may think:
“What does selling have to do with being a COO or Division Vice President?”
“Why would the head of finance or a business unit need sales experience?”
It does not matter what role you have. If you are an executive, you are going to have customer-facing responsibilities, and there’s no better place than sales to learn how to interact effectively with customers. You may be called on to help resolve customer satisfaction issues or to participate in important sales calls. You may need to speak at customer events. Yes, even COOs.
As a key representative of your company, you’ll be expected to interface with your counterparts at other companies, where you’ll need to be conversant in your company’s offerings and why people need them.
Again, sales is the best place to develop this knowledge, because you hear directly from customers why they like what you sell. Even if you didn’t need customer-facing skills, you’d still need a thorough understanding of sales. Why?
Because sales is the lifeblood of business – Any company exists to sell something. As a leader in your company, you need to be able to enter into discussions and decisions about top markets, top sellers, and sales strategies. If you do not understand what’s going on in your sales organization, you don’t understand what’s going on in your business.
It’s that simple.
Selling is challenging and you should be proud of your job. What you may not have thought of, however, is that sales experience is vitally important if you ever hope to have an executive level job. Surprised? When I work with professionals near the top of their non-sales careers and eager to move to the C-Suite, they often lack sales experience.
You may think:
“What does selling have to do with being a COO or Division Vice President?”
“Why would the head of finance or a business unit need sales experience?”
It does not matter what role you have. If you are an executive, you are going to have customer-facing responsibilities, and there’s no better place than sales to learn how to interact effectively with customers. You may be called on to help resolve customer satisfaction issues or to participate in important sales calls. You may need to speak at customer events. Yes, even COOs.
As a key representative of your company, you’ll be expected to interface with your counterparts at other companies, where you’ll need to be conversant in your company’s offerings and why people need them.
Again, sales is the best place to develop this knowledge, because you hear directly from customers why they like what you sell. Even if you didn’t need customer-facing skills, you’d still need a thorough understanding of sales. Why?
Because sales is the lifeblood of business – Any company exists to sell something. As a leader in your company, you need to be able to enter into discussions and decisions about top markets, top sellers, and sales strategies. If you do not understand what’s going on in your sales organization, you don’t understand what’s going on in your business.
It’s that simple.
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