5 Characteristics You Can Learn From a Vet

Veteran's Day is a day of recognition of those who serve our country and protect our freedoms. In honor of those honorable soldiers I want to talk about five characteristics that every good military person must possess and coincidently every good business leader as well.

1. Loyalty

In the military loyalty is required to be a successful unit. A soldier must be loyal to the cause he or she is fighting for, must be loyal to the commanding officer to follow duty assignments and must be loyal to fellow soldiers because literally their lives are in each other's hands.

Business loyalty is needed for the same reason. Without loyalty to the cause the team isn't working toward the same end in mind and goals are not accomplished. Loyalty to leadership means buying into the vision and the focus of the organization. Loyalty to fellow employees means the workplace is more harmonious and works well together as a unit. Without these loyalties in the workplace goals are missed, in-fighting occurs and distractions misdirect people from the primary purpose of the organization. On a scale of 1 to 10 with ten being the highest, where would you rate the loyalty in your organization? You success is probably at the same point on that scale.

2. Discipline

I doubt a soldier would ever tell his commanding officer, "I didn't sleep well last night, missed my morning coffee, and really don't feel like going in to battle today." Sounds almost comical doesn't it. How disciplined is your staff in coming to work ready to make a difference, ready to fight for what is important, eager to face the obstacles of the new day? Can you imagine one morning you walked in and your staff was at the ready in advance of the day, prepared with mental toughness and eager to face the day? This is how you become successful.

3. Courage

Courage is being assigned a forward position and preparing yourself for life and death situations. Courage is knowing your responsibility to protect the freedoms of people who are unable to fend for themselves. Courage is being able to make hard decisions for the good of your organization without side agendas and political games. Courage is taking responsibility for your actions even when things go sideways. Courage is not a fool's game as some want to tell you. Courage is what makes leaders.

4. Commitment

Think about your staff around you. Would you say they are committed to maximizing their effort in the workplace? A soldier knows that without full commitment, he or she could end up dead, or those counting on them could end up dead. Commitment is what wins battles, wins wars, and beats the competition. If you have staff working with half-effort and aren't committed to their role, you are getting far less results than you deserve. Whining is not commitment. Commitment is about "Shut your hole and know your role."

5. Dedication

One definition of dedication is the act of binding yourself to a course of action. Dedication is not about wavering, and it is not playing each side it's about a full onslaught of connection with a action to be taken. If you are going to try to take a hillside you have to be dedicated. If you are going to drop into a hot zone, you must be dedicated, if you are going to accept the responsibility of being an executive you have to be fully engaged and bound to the cause, the mission and the vision of your organization.

Our veterans demonstrate these five characteristics to survive, to make a difference to protect the freedoms we all too often take for granted. We need these people, we count on these people and without our armed forces we would not enjoy the success we have in this country. As an executive are you willing to accept the challenge to live to this standard? Get to it.

3 Ways Pacing Wins Racing (Especially for Businesses)

In basketball, teams have scoring bursts where they post a bunch of points on the opponent in a short period of time. It happens in almost every game. In car racing the driver determines the times in the race to make a move to the front, and in marathons runners know if they charge too hard early they won’t have the right amount of energy for the final kick. It’s all about pacing.

Athletes who study their sport know what it takes to win and they are intimately aware of the critical role pacing plays in winning. So why does business think it can push full bore all day, every day, every month?

If a marathoner uses a sprinter’s training and techniques he will surely lose his long distance race. The strategy doesn’t fit the intent.

1. Use the right strategy

The economy is down, revenue is down, you’ve laid off workers and you are demanding more from the staff you have left trying to squeeze every ounce of profit you can from every month. Does this sound familiar? You will not get your best effort from people if you are asking them to sprint through a marathon. Fatigue will cause mistakes, poor customer interaction and low morale which turns the marathon into a marathon slogging through mud. Find the right strategy to win the race you are in.

2. Decide the race you are in.

For athletes they know the race they have entered and they understand the competition. Are you running a marathon or a 100 yard dash? Are you in a 500 mile race or 250 mile race? Are you playing to out-score your opponent every quarter or just have a higher score at the end of the game?

In business you must determine if you are trying to achieve a particular monthly financial statement or looking at a yearly goal? Are you only seeing a one year vision or are you trying to work with a three year vision? Are you asking your employees to sprint and maximize their effort every minute of every day, or are you running a marathon where they are encouraged to adjust their pace for the long run?

3. Train the pace you expect

Basketball players get to rest during the game as a way to pace their on-court activities and those scoring runs happen when one team is better rested than the opponent. It’s the ebb and flow of the game. Runners give themselves “breaks” during a race and slow down. Elite runners are constantly monitoring their pace because they know how critical it is for them to stay on task to execute the proper strategy at the end of the race. Race car drivers ride laps in the middle of a race maintaining position to save their intense positioning maneuver efforts for the last laps. They can’t win without proper pacing. Where do you encourage your employees to pace themselves?

Asking every employee to give their maximum effort all the time is asking them to burn out and make mistakes and ultimately cost you more than you gain. Teach them how to pace. Let them know a break is needed and encouraged. Design into the job a mental break from the tasks they grind away at. Set the tone for the race you are in and make sure you are using the right techniques and training to win the race you are involved in and trying to win.

Why is Simple so Complicated?

The complexities of life can be overwhelming therefore consumers want to see more things made simple. Yet, companies still with the incorrect focus on adding cost to a product don’t seem to get it.

Ford Motor Company now offers an electronic to tell you when your oil needs changed, and in the television ads they have a young woman proudly proclaiming, “Now all I have to do is press a button and the car tells me when I need to change my oil.” Until it malfunctions as electronics can and will do. What’s wrong with looking at the little sticker in the corner of the windshield? How much do we pay for the one inch square reminder decal as opposed to the extra cost of the oil change indicator?

If Ford really wanted to sell cars they’d offer the Simple Sedan. Hand crank windows, manual transmission, side mirrors you reach out and turn by hand, no air bags, no extra electronics, just a simple car with a simple engine that will simply get you from Point A to Point B. In this economy, with people counting pennies, and fearful of loan payments how many of these cars do you think they could sell at a nice profit?

Take a look at the products you offer. How can you simplify the list of offerings? How can you simplify the product itself? I’m not talking about making poor quality by creating cheap junk; I’m talking about simple.

In the “blink” buying process, if the customer can’t figure out what you are offering in a blink, they will move on to something they can understand. Does this mean we are becoming a “dumber” group of consumers? Not necessarily, I prefer to see it as a reflection of Buyer Believability, where the default setting is distrust. The buyer’s thought process says if I can’t figure it out quickly, they must be trying to pull something on me, so I’ll pass.

Simple isn’t just for lean economic times; it’s for the new buyer who is looking for something they can easily determine if it’s the best fit or not without having to wade through propaganda.

If you’d like to learn more about Buyer Believability: How to Sell to a Skeptical Society contact me at RJWhite@PinnacleSolutions.org or call me at 803-831-7600.

Russell's Rules #4: Everyone is motivated in his or her own unique way

Have you created a list of your employees and their motivational hot buttons?

Old-school management had a list of motivational items all employees would respond to -- in theory. In practical application, everyone is an individual, and the leader who takes the time to get to know and understand those individuals will learn how to push their motivational hot buttons.

Truthfully, just the act of taking the time to learn about your employees as individuals and making the effort to understand them will be a huge motivator in itself. Make a list of your employees by name, and list those things that are important to them such as the name of their significant other, their favorite hobbies, their kids' names, their personal goals in life. The better you can help them enjoy what is important to them, the more motivated your employees will be.

Just Do This…

1. Get to know the basics about what is important to your employees.

2. Treat your employees like friends.

3. Clearly state the goal and why it's important.

4. Set the tone in your own performance.

14 Questions for Thoughtful Thursday

When was the last time you took one full hour of a work day to be uninterrupted by anything and you just sat and thought about your business? No phones, no computer, no walk ins; just you and your mind and maybe a notepad and pen. Here are a few questions to ponder in your hour.

1. How are you taking advantage of the financial recession?

2. What are two things you could do out of character to encourage and motivate employees?

3. Where are you accepting less than the best in your organization? Why?

4. If you could start this year over, what would you do differently?

5. How will you take this knowledge into next year?

6. What scares you about the business?

7. What excites you about the business?

8. How can you generate more excitement?

9. Why should your employees care about where they work?

10. Why should you customers care about your products?

11. What did you have more energy for 10 years ago you let slide today?

12. How can you regain that energy or delegate that task to someone who has it?

13. What three words can you change to your slogan or marketing campaign to totally reposition your products for a new market?

14. When will you schedule another hour on the calendar like this one?

Be a Pro not a Wannabe

Writing code is not my gift although I need to have a great looking website. Knowing how to use the Internet is vastly different than understanding how everything works on the Internet. So, imagine my frustration when my website was hacked repeatedly in a short period of time and my web designer goes AWOL. Repeatedly, because the problem was never fixed by the “experts.”

For six days my website was down while those in the know tried to figure out what happened and how to restore it. I realized I was working with wannabes and not professionals.

I send out an S.O.S. to my twitter followers and received many responses. The non-professional responses from “experts” were shocking. From “Sure I can help your emergency, what’s your budget?” to “After you get your problem fixed drop me a line for hosting services, etc” And then he gives a thank you to who referred him to my post.

Being a professional at what you do means understanding customer interaction, being responsive to the customer and possessing solid knowledge. Claiming to be an expert and actually being an expert are vesting different things. The way the hacker got into my website (as I am told) was due to poor code writing by my “expert” web designer.

A Professional:

• Operates a business not a money-making hobby
• Possesses a skill set beyond the basics
• Builds client relationships, not just grabs what walks along
• Spends more occupational time on this job than on the other jobs he might do

In the land of multi-tasking and multiple occupations the woods are full of people looking for different ways to make money and the buyer is skeptical until he knows whether he is dealing with a professional or a wannabe.

In my case I’ve learned through multiple experiences eLance.com for web work is Wannabe heaven. Be a pro.

3 Ways to Use the Buddy System to Improve Profits

People distrust marketing messages. Part of the distrust comes from the information overflow that can be more than a person can process. What can I believe? What are the real pieces of information and what is pure misinformation? Who really cares for my best interest as a customer? These are the questions being asked by people making buying decisions.

When you are lost, misinformed and in a quandary who do you turn to for advice? Your friends; those people you can trust. The best sales person a business can have is someone who loves the product and eagerly shares with their friends. This is the buddy system of sales.

With ubiquitous communication tools such as Facebook, Twitter and smart phones people are in touch with more people more frequently than ever before. Granted, the depth of these relationships are not nearly as strong as when people met face to face with their friends, but the circle of friends is much larger and the influence someone can have on their friends is broader as a result.

How can you use the Sales Buddy System for your business?

1. Embrace the new communication technology

For donut aficionados the Krispy Kreme "Hot Now" sign lit up in the window is a beacon inviting them to stop in for those donuts at their very best. But the customer has to drive by to see it. What if the store had a Facebook and a Twitter account and notified their followers and friends of "Hot Now" this way? Maybe even add in an afternoon incentive of a discount within the next fifteen minutes of the post or tweet? Your fans are informed.

Using the technology to notify friends and followers is a piece of live information that friends share with friends. Buddies convincing buddies its time for a donut run.

2. Don't market just inform

Too many businesses are using the new technology just to post ads in a different location. #Fail. Forget the marketing attitude. Just inform your friends of what is going on. Instead of telling your employees to keep mobile phones turned off at work, have them sending out positive messages about what is going on in your workplace.

Credit union tells tell me they have members who request them personally to deal with. Great! Let that employee create a fan club of those members and encourage them to use the buddy system to let their fans know when the credit union has posted some new favorable rates. It's not selling, it's just informing.

3. Freebie compensation

Do you have a fan who just loves your products? Does this person have a circle they influence on Facebook or Twitter? They will do your marketing for you and they aren’t even on the payroll, and it’s the best marketing you can get -- the word of a buddy.

Take good care of this person. Send them freebies, invite them in as a VIP to preview new products, provide feedback on intended changes you want to make. The key to the buddy system is to keep them as your buddy so they are eager to share the good news with their buddies.