Dress for Success

Posted on by Scott

belt-952834_640My son Andrew received a very important phone call last week. One of his best friends was preparing to ask his girlfriend to marry him. Following the proposal, family and friends were being invited to a surprise reception for the couple. The night of the event came and Andrew headed out the door – wearing a t-shirt and shorts.

Like it or not, the way you dress is important. In fact, style is a cultural obsession here in the U.S. We ooh and ah over what designers create for the latest celebrity event. We have TV shows dedicated to helping people craft their wardrobes. We even create websites dedicated to fashion disasters; peopleofwalmart.com, anyone?

There’s no doubt that what you wear communicates a great deal about you. We make any number of assumptions about someone based on how they are dressed. Various studies have shown that, as part of our first impression of someone else, we assign characteristics such as financial status, political affiliation, and educational background after just a brief glance at someone’s clothes.

The assumptions don’t stop there. How you dress also influences what others think about your ability to perform your job, and the effects of clothing choice can be very subtle. Dr. Ben C. Fletcher cited two different experiments in which men and women were asked to examine a series of pictures involving people dressed in a variety of outfits. In both experiments, the outfits worn were very similar – suits for men and blouse/skirt combinations for women. All clothing was conservative in nature and colors were kept the same. Faces were blurred, and only slight differences were made in the style of dress. In some cases, the suits were tailored or the skirts fell just above the knee vs. just below.

After viewing the images for only five seconds each, participants rated the models in terms of six dimensions – intelligence, confidence, trustworthiness, responsibility, authority, and organization. As you can probably imagine, those models whose attire was just a step above the rest were rated higher in all dimensions. Men in suits better fitted to their body were seen as “more confident, successful, flexible, and a higher earner.” Women who wore longer skirts and fastened an extra button on their blouse were viewed more favorably than their slightly more casual counterparts.

Of course, businesses have known about these tendencies for decades. That’s why so many have some sort of formal dress code or uniform as part of their personnel policies. It makes sense to protect the brand in this way. If people make unconscious assumptions about an individual’s capability, then it stands to reason that the same assumption would carry over to their feelings about the company as a whole.

But the way we dress also impacts our perceptions of our own capabilities. Just like posture, what we wear influences our sense of power and confidence. Researchers studying the influence of clothing on performance repeatedly confirm this theory. Olympic athletes dressed in red are able to lift heavier weights and tend to win more matches than those who wear blue. Subjects make half as many mistakes on tasks that demand high concentration when wearing a white lab coat. Men wearing suits during negotiations generate more testosterone and walk away with better deals than those who wear sweats.

This phenomenon – the impact that clothes have on the wearer’s psychological state – is called “enclothed cognition.” It involves two aspects of our chosen dress code. First, there’s the symbolic meaning of the clothes we wear. That is, what attributes do we associate with certain types of clothing? White lab coats for instance carry a certain connotation; we see them as belonging to people who are intelligent, trustworthy, and thorough.

The second component of enclothed cognition involves the physical experience of wearing a particular outfit. Putting on the lab coat is a significant act. Actually wearing one increases your attention to detail while simply looking at one does not. Putting on clothes associated with specific professions causes us to adopt – both physically and mentally – the characteristics we associate with that line of work. “Dress for success: starts to take on a whole new meaning now, doesn’t it?

Experts offer these tips for making sure your wardrobe has a positive impact on your success:

  1. Don’t show too much skin.
  2. Never wear dirty clothes.
  3. Don’t wear wrinkled clothing.
  4. Wear clothes that fit you well.
  5. Follow the dress code, or dress one step above it.
  6. Wear appropriate shoes and accessories.
  7. Don’t wear shorts.

Back at the Voland house, my wife and I stopped Andrew before he made a fashion mistake. We convinced him to lose the t-shirt and shorts in favor of jeans and a nice long-sleeved shirt. He immediately stood a little taller. He walked with a bit more confidence. He looked, and felt, like a different person. Plus, he made a great impression.

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Strike a Pose: The Power of Posture

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wonder-woman-1016324_640Freeze. Don’t move.

Now, make a mental note of your posture at this very moment. How are your arms and legs positioned? What’s the state of your body? What about your head? Now, what’s your state of mind? Are you feeling powerful, or powerless? Are you energetic, or lethargic? Do you feel ready to take on the world, or would you prefer to just crawl back into bed?

Studies have long shown a significant connection between our posture and our mental state. How we hold ourselves physically influences the way we think and, by extension, how we act. We can literally change our mood and influence our future behavior simply by adopting the right type of posture.

I recently came across an experiment in which researchers identified actual changes in body chemistry caused by posture. A group of people were asked to participate in what they thought was a study of ergonomics. Half of them were asked to adopt “closed postures” for a period of two minutes. The other half were asked to assume “open postures.”

Closed postures are those in which the body is made small. Arms and legs are drawn in close to the body. Shoulders are hunched and the head is dropped. From the outside, these postures communicate a feeling of insecurity and weakness. People with closed body language are perceived as being less capable in their jobs and less likely to be in a position to help others.

Open postures, on the other hand, are those in which the body takes up more space. The elbows are held further from the body and feet are spread apart. The chest is expanded and the head is held high. From the outside, these postures communicate confidence and strength. People with open body language are perceived as being at the top of their game and more successful.

Have you ever seen Superman? To hide his identity, he pretends to be Clark Kent. This mild-mannered alter ego is shy, insecure, and hardly a hero. His walks with his head down and his shoulders rounded over. To those he meets, Clark is a nice guy, but hardly someone you can count on in a pinch. But the transformation from Clark to Superman is significant. His head rises and his chest swells. His shoulders pull back and you feel the hero’s strength and confidence radiate outward.

Christopher Reeve played Superman in a series of movies starting in 1978 and he perfectly captured the difference between the wimp and the hero. In fact, there’s a scene where Clark goes to see Lois Lane, the object of his affection who’s smitten by Superman. Clark decides to reveal his true identity to Lois. Simply by altering his posture, Reeve morphs before our eyes into Superman. No cape or tights – just a shift in body language.

Think about the way you perceive other people you encounter at the mall or the airport. As you pass by strangers at the grocery store, what does their body language communicate? Without knowing them, or even speaking to them, don’t you get a sense of who they are? We form first impressions of others in seconds, using only the visual clues presented by their body language. Now take a look at your own posture. What signals are you sending out? When people look at you from a distance, what do they see?

What’s interesting is that the impact of body language isn’t just seen on the outside. In the posture experiment I read about, participants had their saliva tested both before and after they assumed their assigned postures. By testing the saliva, researchers were able to determine the levels of testosterone (a hormone associated with power) and cortisol (a stress-inducing hormone) being produced by the body. I bet you can guess the outcome.

People adopting the closed posture poses for only two minutes showed a marked decrease in the amount of testosterone and an increase in the amount of cortisol. They literally became less powerful and more stressed. Those who sat or stood in power poses (the ones with open body language) had the opposite reaction. Their testosterone production increased and their cortisol levels dropped – after only two minutes.

How do you want others to feel about you? How do you want feel about yourself? If the answer is “more powerful,” “less stressed,” and “more capable,” then you might want to think about your posture. How you think impacts how you act, but the opposite is also apparently true. It’s time to act the way you want to feel and the way you want to be perceived. It’s time to be the hero. Adopt the right posture, and make it so.

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The Thing About Walls

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stone-wallFor thirty years, a twelve foot high wall of concrete divided the cities of East and West Berlin. Its official name was the “Anti-Fascist Protective Wall,” but to the world it was simply the “Berlin Wall.” It served as both a physical barrier and a visual reminder of the differences in ideology held by the governing powers of post-World War II Germany. Families were split apart, their houses torn down, and 300 watch towers were erected to guard against unauthorized border crossings.

For those of us who remember, the dismantling of the wall in the early 1990’s represented a new era. It allowed for the free exchange of both goods and ideas. It ignited a cultural shift in Germany that resonated around the world. Today, what remains of the wall provides a sobering reminder of just how much damage walls can create.

Of course, we don’t need steel or concrete to build walls do we? It seems we’ll use just about any excuse to separate ourselves from others – politics, economics, religion, race, gender – pick a reason, and we’ll build a wall to keep the sides apart. Our side is the best, and anyone who doesn’t agree must be the enemy, right?

Sadly, our businesses aren’t immune from this tendency to wall ourselves off. A difference of opinion is all it takes to create a difference of identity. Departments square off against each other. The frontline opposes management. This group knows better than the others. No one wants to budge, and while we continue our détente, the business suffers. The employees suffer. The customers suffer.

I see it, and I know you do too. I talk to too many of you every week who bemoan the state of the organization. “If only we could all get on the same page, we could do so much more…” The problem is real, and it’s ours to solve.

We have to stop viewing unity in terms of what we have to lose. We have a selfishness problem in corporate America. We seem to think that compromising equates to losing. We have an all-or-nothing perspective. “If I can’t have it 100% my way then I won’t play at all.” We hold on to what used to be or what ought to be. But by holding on tight to the past, or ignoring anything but the perfect solution, we miss out on what could be. While we sit and stew about our differences, opportunity for a better future passes us by.

A couple of years ago, I took a trip to Tennessee and got to spend a couple of days hanging out with family. One afternoon, I was playing with my nephews and one of them asked me for a candy bar. He’s pretty young, so I declined to give it to him, feeling my brother and sister-in-law wouldn’t want him to have so much sugar. Without missing a beat, my nephew looked at me and suggested “we could share.” I asked him what that word ‘sharing’ meant. He replied “sharing means everybody gets some.”

We’ve simply got to learn how to get along. We’ve got to stop looking for the differences, and start looking for the similarities. You find what you go looking for – what are you looking for?

We have to stop choosing to do things differently. I wish I had a dollar for every time someone’s told me “We do things differently out here.” This makes no sense. Unless there’s a very real reason – like differences in technology or significant variances in market conditions – there’s no excuse for similar functions within the same company to operate differently. Heck, I can go to any fast food restaurant and order a meal that tastes just like it would in a location across the country. If they can get their act together, why can’t we?

You know what the issue is? Pride. We get our feelings hurt when something we like isn’t viewed as important by the rest of the organization. We get defensive when a practice we’ve come to value is in danger of being changed. So we make up excuses to be different. We convince ourselves that, for the good of the customer, or the employee, or the business, we just have to operate differently. While we espouse diversity, our actions create division.

We’ve simply got to start moving together. We’ve got to stop doing things our own way when there’s no good reason to. I’m reminded of an old proverb, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” I want to go far! Don’t you?

We have to stop withholding information from others. I have a relatively small work group, but recently we’ve really struggled with communicating effectively. We have weekly meetings and email back and forth constantly; yet not a month goes by that I don’t hear about some new initiative that someone’s been working on for weeks without sharing. By the time the rest of us are brought into the loop, large amounts of time and effort have been expended. Input that could have led to a better result goes unspoken and others miss out on benefiting from a great idea. The most frustrating part is – we’re on the same team!

I get it. Some people like to hold on to things out of ownership. There’s a sense of pride in crafting an idea, or document, or process. Sometimes, too, we forget that there might be others who have a stake in what we’re creating. But unless we’re dealing with a contract negotiation or nuclear codes, we should seek out ways to bring more people into the fold. Working on a strategic growth plan? Involve the team. Got a slick new resource in mind? Seek out an extra brain or two. Working to solve a problem? Ask those impacted to lend a hand. Great ideas are like dollar bills – they’re useless until you start spreading them around. While we hold on to information, we lose hold of potential.

We’ve simply got to start communicating better. We’ve got to stop leaving key players out of the conversation or waiting until the last “I” is dotted before sharing. Two heads are better than one, right? Isn’t work more fun and effective when you bring others in?

It’s so easy to build walls; and so very difficult to tear them down. If we’re to ever see real, sustainable improvement in the work culture, we have to stop erecting the very barriers that get in our way. Instead of building something that keeps us in place, let’s put our energy toward creating something that moves us forward. What do you say we build a bridge?

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The Ultimate Sales Model

Posted on by Scott

plan-1725510_640There’s a popular story in retail circles about a man in Anchorage Alaska who visited his local Nordstrom department store to return a set of tires. After explain to the manager that he wasn’t satisfied with the purchase, he received a full refund – despite that fact that Nordstrom doesn’t sell tires. This customer had actually purchased his tires from a company that had sat on the very same piece of land at some point in the past.

While stories like this one have become widely-recounted examples of Nordstrom’s legendary service, they hardly seem to represent a profitable business model. The idea is to make money, not to give it away. You can’t grow a company by offering full refunds, especially for products you don’t even sell.

Or can you?

There are two primary models for driving business today. The first involves product innovation. In this model, a company is always working to reinvent their product lineup. By offering a steady stream of new products, as well as improvements and additional features to existing ones, they seek to stay ahead of the competition. They seek to position themselves as pioneers in their industry and attract customers looking for the latest and greatest.

Of course, this model has drawbacks. It’s difficult to stay on the top. As soon as a revolutionary new product is introduced, competitors work to offer up their own version of it. What was touted as yesterday’s must-have innovation, is today’s commodity. Those playing catch up benefit from the costly trial and error of the trend setter. Their products are usually cheaper and often better since the heavy lifting has been handled by someone else. So, innovators must always be innovating to stay on top.

The second prevailing model involves price discounts. In this model, a company drives efficiency and expense management in pursuit of low prices. They compete by always offering the best prices, either through every day positioning or the advertisement of frequent sales. They see volume as the path to prosperity. They seek to position themselves as the best value and attract customers looking for the cheapest way out.

This model also has drawbacks. There’s always someone else willing to cut their prices to compete. Engaging in the price war means you must find some way to keep going lower, despite pressure to maintain a reasonable margin. This means that corners get cut – cheaper materials, cheaper labor, fewer features, and lower quality all become legitimate paths to improving the bottom line. And while you attract a lot of customers with low prices, those customers are inherently disloyal. Having been caught via the lure of a bargain, they become trained to shop based on price at the expense of value.

Both models are costly. It takes a lot of effort to make them work, and both create a customer base ready to jump ship at a moment’s notice. Such is the case when short-term revenue outweighs long-term growth. But there is another business model that can be used. It’s hard to find, but it’s the one growth strategy that makes the most sense. It’s the one used by companies like Nordstrom and Disney World and Chic-fil-A.

It’s the service-first model.

Companies that adopt the service-first model aren’t interested in being the lowest cost provider. In fact, they typically command premium pricing. You pay more for their products than you would elsewhere. And service-first organizations aren’t typically the innovators – at least not in a “we have the latest gadget” kind of way. You’ll often find them in commodity-based industries. Nordstrom sells clothes and cosmetics, just like any number of other department stores. Chic-fil-A sells fast food, just like thousands of other restaurant chains. Disney World is a theme park, and the competition is fierce.

Service-first organizations see their mission as providing an unmatched experience. It’s the experience that keeps customers coming back despite competitors that might be shinier or cheaper. It’s the experience that customers pay for; and they gladly pay a premium for it. Nordstrom clothes are not cheap. They don’t offer coupons and they rarely run sales. When they do, it’s as a thank you to those loyal customers who’ve shopped with them in spite of seemingly overwhelming reasons to take their business elsewhere.

Interestingly, a service-first model is the one most companies claim. The problem is, you can’t do it all. You choose, knowingly or unconsciously, a philosophy that dictates the course your business will take. One track always takes precedence over the others. And it always shows. Regardless of what you advertise, the people who matter most (your customers and employees) will figure out where your heart is. Make a list of companies you feel are truly service-first. I’ll bet the list is short.

I find the great irony of business is that those who deliver the best service experience don’t talk about it much, while those who actually chase another business model are the ones who most fervently claim to be service-oriented. They’re all bark, little bite. This list is quite a bit longer, isn’t it?

So, do you compete on product? Do you scratch and claw your way to the next short-lived product innovation?

Do you compete on price? Do you slash and burn the infrastructure to drive prices as low as they can go?

Or do you compete on service? Do you simply offer an experience that exceeds that of the competition – one so valuable people gladly pay premium prices to be your customer?

What business model makes the most sense to you? Choose wisely.

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What’s Your Free Throw Percentage?

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blue-basketball-american-basket.jpgI’ve always been a fan of basketball. It’s the perfect sport. It doesn’t take a lot of fancy equipment or training to play. It’s fast-paced and the rules are fairly simple to understand. It requires a combination of strategy, teamwork, and individual skill. Though I’ve cheered for a number of specific teams over the years, including my son’s championship high school team, I don’t need a particular side to root for in order to enjoy a good game.

One part of the game that has always frustrated me though, is free throws. When shooting a free throw, the player has just about everything to their advantage. They stand in a specific spot to shoot, so they don’t have to adjust for varying angles to the basket. The opposing team cannot steal the ball or block the shot, so they player can focus their attention. They have plenty of time to prepare for each free throw, so they don’t have to worry about being rushed to beat the clock. Yet, with all of this going for them, so many players are horrible at shooting free throws.

It’s often said that games are decided at the free throw line. Statistically, two-thirds of a winnings team’s points over the final minutes of a basketball game come from free throws. However, free throw shooting percentages have remained relatively unchanged over the past 50 years. College players make, on average, 69% of their free throw attempts. Players in the NBA average around 75%. There have always been individuals who stand out, but despite 50 years of sports evolution, why hasn’t the average make-rate of this “gimme” shot improved?

The answer is simple: practicing free throws isn’t fun. Few players want to spend significant amounts of time standing in the same pot, shooting the same shot, over and over again. It’s much more invigorating to run special plays or launch low-percentage fade-away three point attempts during practice. Even coaches will admit they generally have low expectations for the free throw.

Becoming a free-throw master isn’t really that hard. The perfect free throw shot is straight, creates a 45 degree arc, and hits the basket about 11 inches past center. Get these three things right consistently, and you’re among the elite – the hero of the game. Miss the easy shots when they count and, well…

Winning the sales and service game is a lot like playing basketball. We live for the big play and the game winning shot, but all too often, we miss the easy shots. It’s the mundane, day-to-day, seemingly insignificant activities that wind up making the difference in whether we win or lose. But it’s precisely because they’re easy, or should be, that we don’t give them much thought.

It takes so little to stand out from the crowd. Often you just have to stand up when everyone else is sitting down. You don’t have to be the most innovative, have the flashiest marketing, or offer the lowest prices. Simply execute, consistently, on the simple stuff and you elevate yourself above the average. That’s what the best do. That’s why they win. The fancy shots and buzzer-beaters make for a great the highlight reel, but games are won by executing on the basics.

So, what’s the secret to consistency? It’s identifying the best way to approach your shot, getting the right kind of coaching, and practicing until perfection becomes automatic. That’s how you win basketball games, and that’s how you win customers.

What’s your free throw percentage? How often do you greet the customer, identify their needs, meet those needs, and then thank them for their business? How consistent is your team at delivering on the easy shots – the can’t-miss opportunities to remind people of the great decision they made in choosing you? Master this part of the game and you’ll greatly increase your odds of a winning season.

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Selling: It’s a Matter of Trust

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sleazyThe concept of selling has been around a long time. Even before the first coins were minted around 600-700 BC, selling was a common practice. The bartering of goods and services in exchange for other items of value required people to convince each other that any given item was more valuable than something similar offered by someone else. The exchange of items of value is, in essence, selling.

It wasn’t until 1886 that the idea of sales as a profession came about. John H. Patterson, the president of NCR would identify the top person in prospect companies, sell them a cash register, and then incent them to share the word with other business owners. This marked the first time that people were paid for selling something they didn’t themselves create. It didn’t take long for the practice to spread.

In 1916, the first World Salesmanship Congress was held in Detroit Michigan. President Woodrow Wilson spoke and led credence to the idea of salespeople being important professionals. The theme of the congress was “trust-based” selling, an indication that nefarious practitioners had already begun to infiltrate the profession.

Ultimately, trust is at the heart of any sales proposition. Whether bartering or exchanging products and services for currency, both parties involved have to trust the other. In today’s sales environment, the burden of trust rests most heavily on the shoulders of the salesperson. They must appear trustworthy is the customer is to believe that what they are receiving is of sufficient value to justify what they are asked to pay. You might get away with violating a customer’s trust once or twice, but that’s it. Broken trust leads to broken relationships, and sales is all about relationships.

It’s the concept of trust that allows us to function as well as we do. Researchers have identified three functions that trust performs in society and interpersonal relationships:

Trust makes social interactions predictable. When you first meet someone new, you don’t know how they are going to act. But after a very brief interaction, you begin to pick up on patterns in their behavior. It’s these patterns that determine how you anticipate their future actions. Having observed the behavioral patterns of individuals over time, you can predict how a potential interaction will unfold. We start to “trust” that people will act a certain way.

Trust creates a sense of community. We tend to associate with people who behave in ways we prefer. It’s our trust in the future actions of others that leads us to form social groups. Your circle of friends exists because you’ve come to trust this group of people will act in ways you find agreeable. We move toward people we trust and away from those we do not.

Trust helps people work together. As communities develop, you trust that any given member of that group will act within the accepted boundaries of behavior. This means we don’t really have to know a specific individual in order to develop a level of trust with them. By affiliating with a particular community, we assume an individual believes in the same things as the group. We expect their behavior to follow the predictable mold that drew us to the group in the first place.

Think about the individuals and groups you associate with. How has trust influenced the makeup of your circle? What behaviors drew you to these groups? What behaviors would betray that trust and drive you away?

As salespeople, we have chosen to align ourselves with individuals and communities that communicate particular levels of trust. You reputation depends on, and impacts, the perceived level of trust customers have in your coworkers, your organization, and even others in your same profession working elsewhere. Each of us has a responsibility to validate, and strengthen, the trust placed in us. It is trust that leads customers to willingly engage with us, join our community by purchasing our products, and continue working with others in our organization.

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Why is “Sales” Such a Dirty Word?

Posted on by Scott

good-1123013_640Black or white. Good or evil. Republican or democrat. Positive or negative. We’ve gotten pretty good at drawing lines in the sand, haven’t we? As a society, and a species, we love to categorize and label people, things, and activities. We somehow feel more comfortable having declared our alliance with a particular side and then view the world in terms of absolutes. You’re either on one side or the other. We have a hard time making sense of any gray area, so we stop acknowledging that it even exists.

That’s often the way people view the ideas of sales and service. Sales is bad. Service is good. If you’re a salesperson, you automatically inherit the most negative connotations the word can conjure up. You can’t possibly provide good service, because your job is to separate me from my money, right? How can anyone who chooses to be a salesperson also profess to be a service provider? It’s hypocrisy.

I get it. There’s a lot of unethical behavior out there that, to some extent, justifies the categorization of sales as bad. Deceptive advertising, hidden costs, bait-and-switch tactics, and even outright lies – they’re all out there. Every person reading this has no doubt been burned at some point by an unscrupulous salesperson looking to line their own pockets by playing on our innocence.

And so we’ve come to believe in the evilness of sales so strongly that many advocate eliminating the word from their corporate vocabulary. Instead of salespeople, we have consultants and advisors – as if changing the word does anything to mask the intent behind the behavior. They cringe when someone identifies sales for what it is and then try to explain how what they’re doing away as something different – something less offensive.

I think it’s time we put an end to this practice. I say we take back the word “sales” and acknowledge it for the noble profession that it is. How dare we allow the bottom-feeders out there to pollute the collective consciousness of our customers? How dare we hide behind some politically-correct term that attempts to soften an activity that has no shame?

Sales is a good thing. Without it, we wouldn’t know what new products are being introduced to the market. We wouldn’t hear about additional features and benefits that can enhance our lives. Without the proactive actions of caring salespeople, we’d be lost – searching for answers to problems we don’t even know we have.

Like most things though, there’s a right way and a wrong way to go about selling. The stories we tend to hear about – the ones that form our negative opinions about salespeople – are the ones that go bad. They’re the ones that leave us feeling uncomfortable with the process and the result. They’re the ones that cause us to avoid salespeople like the plague. Remember, we move toward those things that cause us pleasure and away from those that cause us pain. If all we experience or hear about are painful sales encounters, it’s no wonder we avoid them.

My wife just bought a new car. For most people, the prospect of interacting with a car salesman is pretty low on the “things I want to do today” list. But let me tell you about John. He does his job well. He asked Susan the right questions. He picked up on subtle cues and clues that indicated her preferences. He provided information that helped place each car she looked at in the proper context relative to the others on the lot, and those offered by his competitors. There were no vague answers, no off-the-cuff promises, and no high-pressure pitches. He simply sought to understand the customer’s needs and then pointed her to a product that would meet them.

The process of buying my wife’s new car didn’t feel sleazy. It didn’t feel like we were getting cheated or misled. It felt right. When my wife told the manager how impressed she was with John, he nodded his head in understanding. It turns out John has won many awards for sales excellence over his 20 year career with the dealership, and has a large list of repeat customers. I can see why. His approach to selling makes for a pleasurable experience – people are naturally drawn back to that. John is a salesman, and proud of it.

The world needs more people like John. We need men and women who actively seek to understand what the person in front of them needs and then share how their product can meet those needs. We need salespeople. Look around at your coworkers. They could be those kind of people. You could be one too. Let’s do it together.

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Change the Way You Act

Posted on by Scott

weary-traveler-1631369_640Welcome back! I hope you had a merry Christmas full of family, friends, and good cheer. I’m actually enjoying a second round of Christmas this week. My parents flew into town last night and are spending the week with us. I anticipate a week of much needed rest before hitting the New Year in stride.

Speaking of the New Year, I promised to share my three personal challenges for 2017. I’ve already laid out the first two – changing the way I think and changing the way I talk, having provided specific ways in which I plan to address each of these goals. Today, I want to explain the third challenge I’ve decided to take on for 2017. It’s to change the way I act.

It’s easy to say you will change the way you think. After all, no one can read your mind and see the actual thoughts swirling around your brain. And it’s only slightly less difficult to change the way you talk. Despite the occasional slip of the tongue, choosing to say “the right thing” comes easy for a lot of us. After all, words are cheap, right?

But changing the way you act is something altogether different. It is through our actions that we are defined. I’ve known plenty of people who acted in ways that seemed remarkably different than the way they spoke. Many of us act in ways that run counter even to what we believe to be best. Actions can betray not only our words, but our thoughts as well. So I’ve chosen some specific ways in which to try and tame my own behavior.

I’m going to try and act with intention. I’m one of those people that like to say “yes.” I like being viewed as a go-to resource, someone who can get the job done. But saying “yes” too often gets a lot of people in trouble. Taking on too much can put you in a position where you’re running behind and trying to please a lot of others people while still trying to get your own work done. In the end, you wind up short-changing everything. No one project gets your best effort and no one, including yourself, is blown away by the result.

To combat this trend, I’m challenging myself to be more purposeful about my actions. When I take something on, I want it to be intentional. It needs to be something I believe in and will commit to owning. I want to execute. It may upset a few people that I have to say “no” to, but then they wouldn’t be happy with a lackluster effort anyway. I’ll be happier with myself having committed to only those projects I believe in.

I’m going to try and act with passion. Having ideally pared down the number of commitments I’ve made, I should be able to approach each one with a lot more gusto. You know that feeling you get when you’re working on something and just know deep down that you’re doing your best work? Time seems to slip away because you get caught up in doing the very best job you can. That’s the feeling I’m going to shoot for. I want work I can be proud of. That means I can’t allow myself to “dial it in.” If I’m in it, I’m in it to win it.

I’m going to try and act with focus. I can’t do my best work with a lot of distraction. Multi-tasking has been scientifically proven to reduce productivity, and I know it’s been killing me. So that’s got to stop. Likewise, interruptions pull me out of “the zone” and make it that much harder to get back in the swing of things. So I’m going to have to block out chunks of time to focus my energy on specific tasks knowing that the end result will be better having done so.

Now, I’ve shared my three personal challenges with you for a couple of reasons. Obviously, I feel this is a good practice and I want to encourage you to identify a couple of challenges for yourself. If I’ve hit a chord with my challenges, feel free to adopt them and join me on this quest. Regardless, write down specific things you want to improve on in 2017. I write mine on sticky notes and post them on my bathroom mirror as a daily reminder.

I also invite you to hold me accountable. Accountability is something of a lost art these days. People didn’t always feel so free to make promises knowing they could ignore them or weasel their way out at some point. I thinks that’s a shame. So, ask me from time to time how I’m holding up against my personal challenges. If you feel so bold, share your 2017 goals with me. I’ll be your accountability partner if you’ll be mine.

Let’s make 2017 the very best it can be. The New Year is blank canvas, just waiting for us to make our mark. What do you say we make it a great one?

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Change the Way You Talk

Posted on by Scott

listen-1702648_640Each year, I identify a handful of personal challenges. This is different form setting resolutions – something that millions of people do as part of their New Year’s celebration. I used to set resolutions as well, but switched to challenges for a couple of reasons.

First of all, resolutions are often too vague. The most popular seem to be things like “get in shape” or “get organized.” While those are admirable goals to shoot for, they are simply too innocuous to mean anything. There aren’t any measurable steps spelled out which means people rarely start them or have a means to track their progress, a key part of self-motivation.

Secondly, resolutions that are specific tend to create pass/fail scenarios. People who resolve to start working out twice a week will often go through the process of joining a gym. Then they hit the weights for a week or so, only to suddenly miss a week due to work travel or conflicting commitments. Once the streak is broken, they fall back into bad habits and abandon the resolution because they missed the mark of perfection.

The whole point of year-end reflection and goal-setting isn’t perfection, though, it’s improvement. That’s why I like the idea of challenges vs. resolutions. Stating my goal as a challenge affirms, from the beginning, that this isn’t going to be easy. I’m going to have to work at it. I expect to stumble. So when I fall short, it’s ok to get up and try again. The game isn’t over just because I haven’t succeeded out of the gate.

Last week, I shared my first challenge for 2017: to change how I think. The second of my three challenges (my mind tends to work in threes) is to change the way I talk. Now there are those who say we should all just work on talking less. In fact, a friend at church one said “I never miss an opportunity to keep my mouth shut.” That’s sound advice, but given the chance to speak, what kind of words ought to come out? Here’s what I plan to focus on…

I’m going to try to speak in ways that encourage people. If there’s anything that this year’s election cycle proves, it’s that hateful language hasn’t gone anywhere. I find it incredible that so many people find it so easy to voice derogatory and hurtful things about someone else – typically someone they don’t even know. As I write this, I’m thinking about an interaction I witnessed Saturday night.

My wife and I were on the way to a Christmas party and stopped at the store to pick up something we’d forgotten as part of our gift package. As we checked out, two ladies entered. Something had apparently happened in the parking lot as they were glaring at each other. Suddenly they both began shouting. Profanity, insults, and threats were all there on display for the rest of us – including the young daughter of the vilest participant.

Though I haven’t been part of a spectacle like this, I’m not always very encouraging either. I need to stop participating in gossip. I need to stop shooting down ideas I don’t agree with. I can work harder to recognize people for the positive qualities they bring to the table and be a better cheerleader for their efforts.

I’m going to try and speak in ways that add value to outcomes. As I mentioned, I’m not always supportive of ideas that I don’t agree with. However, just because they aren’t my ideas, doesn’t mean they are bad ones. I’m challenging myself to either voice my support in a way that adds value or take my friend’s advice and keep my mouth shut.

The world of improv comedy has a number of valuable lessons for leaders. One of these is to replace “no, but” with “yes, and.” This means that instead of immediately identifying ways something won’t work, we look for ways to add value and assist in making the effort a success. It’s a subtle shift of two words, but a giant shift in attitude.

I’m going to try and speak in ways that invite participation. Sometimes I have a tendency to keep really great ideas to myself. I do the same thing with difficult projects I’m working on. I guess I’m either embarrassed to ask for help, or want to present a perfect solution. Neither is a healthy reason for keeping others out.

The third part of changing the way I talk is to invite more people to work with me on things. Instead of holding all the cards until I (hopefully) have things figured out, I’m going to try including others who might be able to help me be more successful. It’s more fun to work with others anyway, and burdens are lighter when shared with a friend. Plus, victory is that much sweeter when you have someone to share it with.

There are just a few days left in 2016. Are you thinking about what you’ll do differently in 2017? How does the language you use play into those plans? I’ll share my third personal challenge for 2017 in my last article of the year next Monday.

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Change the Way You Think

Posted on by Scott

woman-1148923_640As a young professional, I used to listen to motivational guru Zig Ziglar. He was a top salesman turned motivational speaker who published a number of books and other materials regarding the keys to success. During my long work commutes in Nashville, Tennessee, I would often forgo the radio in favor of an audio book by Zig or one of his contemporaries. They always used to fire me up and put me in the right frame of mind for a successful day at the office.

Zig Ziglar used to say “If your thinking is stinking, then so is your business.” His point was that your mindset has a huge impact on the course of your work. The way you think determines, to a great extent, the outcomes you experience. Stinky thinking involves focuses your mind on negative things – failures, problems, worse case scenarios. Ruminating on these things causes you to unconsciously encourage them to come about.

I’ve seen this play out in my own life. The days where my mind is occupied by negative thoughts are my worst days. The more I let my mind drift into stink thinking, the more my mood suffers, and the more bad things happen. Conversely, when I consciously decide to focus my mind on positive things, my mood is better and good things tend to happen.

Mental health is a lot like physical health in that what you choose to put in determines what you get. If you want to feel better and be more physically fit, you have to eat the right kinds of food and participate in the right kind of exercise. Doing so prepares your body to move in ways that are beneficial vs. harmful. The way you approach your mental diet and exercise is, I believe, just as important.

As I prepare for the new year, one thing I plan to focus on is the way I think. I stopped making resolutions a long time ago. Instead, I make a list of three personal challenges. I write them down and post them on my mirror where I can see them every day. This helps me stay committed throughout the year.

My first personal challenge for 2017 is to change the way I think.

I’m going to picture success. Too many days find me in a bad mood before I even hit the office. My mind is picturing a confrontation with someone who cut me off on the drive in. I’m anticipating a heated debate regarding a controversial issue. I’m dreading a meeting that I don’t want to attend. These are symptoms of stinky thinking and I need to address them before they take root.

Before tackling the day, I’m going to try and create a mental image of a successful day. What will my meetings sound like? How will the various interactions unfold? What will I have accomplished by the time I go home that signals a good day? By envisioning the future that I want, I will be taking the first step toward making it a reality.

I’m going to focus on what’s possible. How often do you find yourself worrying about things beyond your control? There are times when I spend valuable mental energy griping internally about other people who don’t think the way I do or act in ways that seem counterproductive. I waste time waiting for others to get engaged or decide to move on projects I feel are important. These are also symptoms of stinky thinking and I need to redirect my thoughts in a sweeter-smelling direction.

I’m going to train my mind to zero in on the actionable steps that I can control instead of the things I can’t. What forward movement can I take, however small it may be? How can I prepare for opportunities that might lie just around the corner? What can I do with what I have, where I am, right now? By keeping a forward focus, I’ll be able to identify specific ways to contribute to my success.

I’m going to seek out positive inputs. My mental diet over the past several months has been horrendous. I’ve consumed a steady stream of negative political ads, name-calling, bickering, and general doom-and-gloom based news. Everything from my television to my Facebook feed has trended negative. This can’t possibly be good for my own mental outlook.

I’m going to make a conscious effort to seek out sources of positivity. I’ve already taken steps to block social media friends who post nothing but negative news or attacks on others. I plan to identify some constructive podcasts and excuse myself from gripe sessions when they start up around me. When what I listen to, watch, and even participate in is stinky, my thinking starts to smell as well. It’s up to me to fix it. By inviting more constructive things in, I’ll leave little room for the negative.

I’m confident that purposefully addressing the mental part of my game will have significant benefits for me in 2017. I’m curious to know what your mental diet looks like. What does your image of success look like? What do you do to keep yourself focused on the right things? Where do you find positive inputs to exercise your mind constructively? I invite you to share. Next week, I’ll share my second personal challenge for the year.

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