Harnessing Your Strengths

......Do you know what your strengths are?  Read this approach from Author Marcus Buckingham.

5 Questions with Marcus Buckingham: Harnessing Your Strengths and True Genius

 

Q: Can you start by sharing one simple step or tool that Vistage members can use to help them stay open to opportunities and on a "strengths path"? A:   I would say that the most obvious thing to do is to realize that you are the person in charge of what your strengths are. And we'll be talking about this a fair bit on the call itself. But most people seem to think that a strength is what you're good at, and a weakness is what you're bad at. And if we think that, then, we are not the best judge of our strengths because somebody else probably is the best judge of what you're good at and what you're bad at. But actually, that's not a very good definition of a strength. A strength is an activity that makes you feel strong—it's an activity that strengthens you. And of course, if that's true, if strengths really are an antecedent to performance, there are activities that strengthen you, that invigorate you, that you have an appetite for, that cause you to practice more, that then drive your performance.  If that's what a strength is, then there are signs that you can see all around you, if you've got the eyes to see them and the ears to hear them.  And I think that's one of the most basic rituals that we can all do, to stay on our strengths path.  To keep our eyes peeled for the most obvious signs of which activities strengthen us and which don't. There are a number of signs, but probably the two most obvious signs of a strength that you could pay attention to and really give your full attention to, is firstly, what do you find yourself positively anticipating, actively looking forward to? And then rapid learning: What do you pick up quickly? What do you find that you get so involved in, that you lose track of time? So in terms of a ritual, I think obviously, keep your mind open to opportunities on your career path. Keep experimenting. But as you're doing so, remember: You're always looking for those activities that strengthen you. The two most obvious signs are positive anticipation and rapid learning. And when you see those two signs pop up, it's a really good clue that you need to keep orienting yourself toward those activities and tilting your world toward them. Q: You've written an entire book on "The One Thing That You Need To Know…," which addresses great managing and great leading, as well as sustained individual success. What's the one imperative thing that everyone should know to be successful? A:   I think I would say that the thing we have to remember is that genius is precise. There are some areas in your job where you are probably better than 100,000 other people at those things.  And you are wired to be invigorated by that set of activities.  And it is non-transferable. So I move you even 5% in your job, and you go from A+ to B- so fast. Like for me, I'm a good presenter.  You put me in a room on a subject I know a lot about, where I'm prepared. And I know my subject. I'm a one in 100,000 presenter. You turn that into a teaching environment where I've got about the same number of people but now I'm not presenting.  Now I'm listening to the learners in the room trying to figure out where they're at with their learning.  Trying to tweak what they're picking up so that they can actually understand it better.  Responding to their questions.  Tailoring what I'm saying to accommodate that particular question.  And I'm a B-, maybe a C+. To an outside observer, it looks just the same.  It's just a room full of students trying to learn.  And there's a guy at the top and he's talking and it looks exactly the same.  But it isn't.  I go from A to C+ really quickly. Another example is with a sales person. A person in sales might say, "I'm a good sales person."  No you're not.  You happen to be a genius at opening up new accounts. You can go into a raw territory that hasn't had anybody in it forever and wake it up.  You're brilliant at, not just cold calling, you've got a way of getting people started, getting the momentum going.  And you just get invigorated by that.  To take something from zero to 10 miles an hour—you're just on fire. And then lo and behold, you get the territory running and you now have to build existing accounts. You've got to go into existing relationships that are already pretty sizable and turn them into something much bigger.  And you're average.  It's still the same job.  It's still the same job title.  You're a SALES person.  Same company, maybe.  Same product.  You're now average. Your genius, whatever it is, is really precise. Q: Is genius something that you can grow into?  Or is that just all part of the exploration? A:   Yeah.  I think that's how genius works. You're born with it.  And then you grow into it. You see a kid who's born with genius.  My daughter has genius in influence.  So she's brilliant at persuading people to do things for her. In first grade her teachers made her write her goals for next year. Her first goal is:  "Learn to read better," which is fine. It was misspelled, but you know, it was fine. The second goal is:  "Stop fooling the teachers."  And I was like, what?  I thought maybe ALL the kids are doing that.  That it might be generational.  But, no, my daughter is the only one.  "Stop fooling the teachers. What does she mean by that?"  They were like, "Well, she always tries to charm us into the fact that she doesn't know something or can't do something, and to 'please just give her the answer' because it would be easier. And she's just working it all of the time.  She's just working it, in a charming, lovely way." That's a gift.  It's a genius gift.  My son doesn't have it.  He doesn't even know he can fool teachers.   In his world that's an impossibility. And it's not a girl/boy thing because there are many girls that don't have it. There are some boys that DO have it.  It's just a thing. It's just a part of Lilia's genius. She's got to learn to channel that genius productively so that she becomes one. You have a genius and you become one by growing into it. Strengths are value-neutral. They can be used for very good ends and they can come out in obnoxious ways. Part of stepping into your strengths or channeling your genius is a growth process.  It's something you grow into as you experiment and learn how to best apply yourself. Q: In the upcoming Webinar, you're going to be addressing the opportunity that we all have as employees to apply our strengths at work to succeed.  Can you give us some insight into what it means to be a "strong manager"? A:   I'm going to draw a distinction between managing and leading. Leading is something you do with many people.  Managing is something you do with one. A great manager is good because that manager is able to take one person's personality and turn it into performance. So a great manager is somebody who is really good at generating performance out of an individual, one person at a time. And they do it through individualization.  Individualization is the key skill of a great manager.  Spotting how people are different, how people learn, how people are driven, how people communicate.  Knowing that some people don't communicate with email very well at all, some people love email, some people like face-to-face communication, or that some people like texting.  That's what a great manager is able to do. What is a strong manager?  Somebody who's able to realize that each person has unique strengths to offer and then is really good at figuring out how to capitalize on those strengths. Q: Any last thoughts you would like to share with our Vistage members? A:  I think the thing that we'll talk about a bit is, for us all to remember, that this is the responsibility of each individual person.  If you want to be a person who actually excels in your life and derives satisfaction from the work that you do in your life, there is no one who cares more about that than you. You can benefit from having a great mentor relationship, or a great manager relationship.  But what that person, that mentor, that manager, what they need from you, is they need you to walk in with a full sheet of paper.  Not a blank sheet of paper.  I think too many of us sit down with a blank sheet of paper and we look at the manager and we say, "Hey, develop me.  Help me.  Grow me.  Challenge me." And what we really should be doing is actually walking into that room and sitting down and going, "You know what; I know a fair bit about which activities strengthen me and which don't. I've done some really good thinking about it, not just theoretically, but practically.  I've looked to the activities that I'm feeling my week with.  I try to understand which of those activities strengthen me and which don't.  I've looked at the activities that drain me. And I'm going to sit down in front of you right now and I'm going to tell you in vivid detail what those are.  So that together we can think about course correction.  Together we can think about what kind of things I can do to fine tune where I'm spending my time or what new skills I might learn that can build upon what I now know about myself." As an individual, you're walking in there with the raw material.  You are the best judge of what I say invigorates you and what doesn't.  And it's YOUR responsibility to bring that to the conversation that you have with your manager or your mentor.  No one else is responsible for that.  And besides, you've got more insight into that than they ever will. So that's the thing I would leave everyone with is, that, it's not that people don't care about you.  They do.  But no one cares about you as much as you do.  And no one knows you as well as you do.  And it's your responsibility to bring that knowledge and that awareness to whomever you want to partner with in your growth and your development.

Interview with Vistage Intl 

 Nov 30, 2010 

Leading a Multi-Generational Workforce

Most of my clients and CEOs are not exactly in the Gen Y workforce. However, it's pretty important for you to understand how to lead these multi-generations today. It just might help lead to your success as a firm.

What do you need to know? How to behave and be flexible with this group?
Recently the Vistage Intl blog highlighted this importance with some valuable suggestions.

You can read more at    click here

The article also mentions a fascinating video from Gen. Stanley McChrystal making a presentation at TED with critical lessons from his military leadership for this same generation of soldiers.

Hope you find value in it.

54 Critical Sales & Career Questions

I recently saw a great list of 54 critical sales, career, service, & loyalty questions for your development. How could these help you?

Questions like.....How am I helping my customers build their business?

Why did the last 5 prospects say no to us?

Why did the last 5 prospects say yes to us?

How can we build on that?

This is from author, Jeff Gitomer and his book.....The Little Red Book of Selling.



Here is the complete list:

1. What are the five most important goals for me to achieve this year?

2. What is my plan for each?

3. Why am I watching TV reruns instead of working on my 5 major goals?

4. What would happen if I lost two of my top ten customers?

5. What am I doing to prevent that loss?

6. How often am I in front of my customers?

7. Suppose my competition was in front of my customer once a day with something of valuable, and all I had was literature about me?

8. What will my website do that will make my customers buy something?

9. What will my website do that will make my customers return?

10. What does my website look like compared to my competition?

11. Do they wish they had mine or do I wish I had theirs? Or do they both suck?

12. How easy is it to do business with me?

13. Am I available to my customers 24.7.365?

14. What's my plan to get there?

15. How much do I hate a computer that answers the phone?

16. Does my company have a computer that answers the phone?

17. What am I thinking?

18. How friendly are the employees at my company?

19. How friendly am I?

20. How's my attitude?

21. Do I try to do one positive mental attitude building exercise a day?

22. What value am I bringing to my customer beyond my product and service?

23. How am I helping my customers build their business?

24. What separates me from my competition in the eyes of a customer?

25. What am I doing to earn my customers loyalty?

26. How vulnerable am I to our competition?

27. How vulnerable am I to a price reduction from a competitor?

28. Will all my best employees or co-workers be here at the end of the year?

29. Why will some customers leave?

30. What am I "known" for?

31. What am I recognized as being "the BEST" at?

32. How excellent are my selling skills?

33. What questions am I asking my prospects and customers that my competition is not asking?

34. Why did the last five prospects say no?

35. What am I doing about it?

36. Why did the last five prospects say yes?

37. How am I building on that?

38. What does my voicemail say?

39. Is my voicemail message smart or dumb?

40. How many hours of TV a day do I watch?

41. How many hours would that be per year? (OUCH!)

42. How many of those hours are helping me succeed?

43. How many books on creativity have I read in the last 12 months?

44. How many books on sales or service have I read in the last 12 months?

45. How many books have I read in the past 12 months?

46. How many self help tapes have I listened to in the car last week?

47. How much time am I devoting to learning?

48. How much time am I investing in promoting and positioning my business?

49. How much am I spending to improve my image?

50. What do the leaders in my industry say about me?

51. How many people are spreading my "word" for me?

52. What's my plan to double my income over the next three years?

53. What will i need to learn to get it? What will I have to give up to get it?

54. How much do I love what I do?

(my questions to you)

54.5 If you don't love it, why are you doing it?

Free GitBit -- Want a great list of books that will build your success library -- and your success if you read them. Go to www.gitomer.com - register if you're a first time user, and enter the words SALES PILLS in the GitBit box.

Jeffrey Gitomer, author of The Little Red Book of Selling, and The Little Red Book of Sales Answers.

Want Better Answers? Try Better Questions

Answers to the future growth of your business depend on your ability to ask the right questions. These are the fundamental questions that underlie the core of your intention.

Why does your business exist? This question reveals your true purpose. It is the most powerful question, and all other questions revolve around this nucleus.

Howard Behar, former president of Starbucks, authored It’s Not About the Coffee and expressed “when organizations are clear about their purpose, they find the energy and passion to do great things.” This enabled his team to carry out the essence of their mission, “to inspire and nurture the human spirit.” The result: a place where people love to meet.

Go beyond just products and profits in expressing your purpose. What is your company’s unique value contribution to the world?

Which business are you really in? This question implies a choice among alternatives. Choosing wisely depends on the linkage you make to your core ideology.

For example, Steve Jobs’ core ideology at Apple is the intersection of technology and the arts. This strategic context led to iPods, iPhones and iPads. Each became blockbuster post-PC successes.

In exploring alternative choices you have for your business, identify which central theme will remain a predominant driver of your decisions. This answer may lead to a fresh examination of opportunities to pursue.

Who are you? This question focuses on your people and brand. Building great brands begins with your own expression of what you stand for, reinforced by the perspective of your customers.

For example, Disney spans amusement parks, movies, video games, music, cruises, and TV. Their brand focuses on one central theme successfully carried out by employees: making people happy.

How do you describe who you are? How does the marketplace describe who you are? Decide which aspects of your identity will remain constant and which aspects will evolve over time?

Where is your business headed? This question addresses your vision and future market position.

For example, Coca Cola’s vision is “to have a Coke within arm’s reach of everyone on the planet.” While perhaps not achievable, this image leads one to explore many possibilities.

Ten years from now, where could your business be positioned? Engage your executive team in “painting the canvass” of your future. With this end in mind, work backwards to determine what it takes to get there.

What are your company’s most important goals? This question demands measurable results over a set timeframe.

As humans, we are energized by a compelling goal. President Kennedy’s goal to land a man on the moon and return safely by the end of the 1960s moved an entire nation to action. His goal was simply stated and compelling.

What single goal, with a metric and timeframe, is moving your entire company to action?

How will you achieve your goals? This question deals with a process or methodology.

For example, GE holds an international reputation for nurturing extraordinary leadership talent in their many businesses. Their leadership development processes include extensive leadership training, constant executive reviews of leadership, top brass getting to know the families of upcoming leaders, 360 leadership assessment surveys, and a culture that revolves around leadership.

How do your business processes directly support your goals? Which areas need to be strengthened or eliminated?

When will you take steps to address critical issues facing your business? This question addresses the timing of taking action. Create a storyboard so that you know how each action step will lead to your desired outcome.

For example, in order for the Washington Business Alliance – a non-profit comprised of CEOs – to address critical issues in Washington State, their first action step is to demonstrate deep understanding of the issues. This leads to the other four elements of their work: collaboration, innovation, advocacy and achievement.

What is the sequence of steps your team must take in order to address the critical issues in your business?

Conclusion: These powerful questions serve as the core elements of inquiry that combine to form strategy. They reveal the fundamental dimensions of intention: purpose, choice, people, position, goals, process and action. If you routinely use The Seven Questions® as a model, you’ll discover better answers for growing your business.

Source: Chief Executive.net

May 10 2011 by Norm Levy

What have you done to Innovate.....this year?

WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO INNOVATE....THIS YEAR?


HOW DO YOU GET LIBERATED FROM THE ROUTINE?


Here's a very interesting approach that several successful firms have used to keep the flow of ideas coming.....plus it helps to motivate the team.

Selling the Best Hour of the Day to Yourself

May 3 2011 by Andy Boynton and Bill Fischer

Here’s an idea to use your time in clever ways to advance your learning and effectiveness.

One of the biggest challenges ahead for top executives is to create learning organizations in which everyone knows more. Contrary to widespread belief and practice, this is not primarily about technology—for example, crafting better web pages or databases. Simply put, the way to become a learning organization is to make sure people are, well, learning—constantly. And the way to do that is to encourage everyone to become what Warren Buffet’s insightful partner, Charlie Munger, describes as “learning machines.” As he explains, these are people who “go to bed every night a little wiser than they were when they got up.”

We believe that such an emphasis on the individual, rather than on technical processes, is the key to forging true learning organizations. The fundamental task is to create a culture in which learning is a well-understood expectation—something done by individuals, starting with executives, every single day.

We don’t need to dwell on the stakes here: acquiring new knowledge and superior ideas are essential for organizations to innovate and find an edge in today’s hyper-competitive markets. By now few senior managers would argue otherwise, and some will, in fact, turn at least part of their focus to the individual. For example, they’ll tinker with training budgets or find some extra time for attending seminars. These are all well and good, but such efforts tend to be intermittent at best. Learning with the goal of innovation is different. It’s a habit—one that calls for conscious strategies every manager can deploy.

Senior managers should start by borrowing a page from Munger, who hit upon one simple strategy when he was a young lawyer. He decided that whenever his legal work was not as intellectually stimulating as he’d like, “I would sell the best hour of the day to myself.” He would take otherwise billable time at the peak of his day and dedicate it to his own thinking and learning. “And only after improving my mind—only after I’d used my best hour improving myself—would I sell my time to my professional clients. And I did that for a number of years,” he said at the 2008 shareholders meeting of Wesco Financial, which he leads, and which is controlled by Warren Buffett’s company, Berkshire Hathaway.

For both Munger and Buffett, reading and conversations are the basic stuff of daily learning time. Both of them have a preference for what Munger somewhat raffishly refers to as “ass time”—parts of the day when they’re perusing published material at their desks.

Of course, not everyone can seal off a choice hour of office time every day for intellectual improvement. Even Munger said he would make an exception when a demanding situation arose. The important lessons here are 1) learning is not something you do only when business is slow; 2) it is an intentional activity; and (3) everyone can make it a priority. Most executives would be able to run with some version of Munger’s “sell the best hour” approach. Most would be able to deepen their knowledge, pursue their interests, and explore ideas on a daily basis—and lead others to do so as well.

Some companies have begun to institutionalize the notion of “sell the best hour.” For example, 3M has long made it a practice to let employees set aside 20 percent of their time for work unrelated to the core business—in search of ideas and innovations. Google follows the same drill. Most of its employees are allotted one day a week to follow their interests and passions. “This has produced more than a few of Google’s technological breakthroughs. Just as important, it conveys a sense of freedom,” writes Ken Auletta in his book Googled: The End of the World as We Know It, adding that the 20-percent rule also encourages engineers to “push the envelope, to assume that their mission is to disrupt traditional ways of doing things.”

According to Google’s main overseer of product innovation, Marissa Mayer, half of the company’s new products have stemmed from the 20-percent allotment. One example is Google News, the automated news aggregator that premiered in 2006. In addition to the 20-percent rule, Google has other ways of nurturing the thinking and conversation behind the innovations. For instance, adapting an idea from university life, Mayer holds open office hours three times a week, welcoming all those who have a notion they’d like to entertain. Following the example set by 3M and Google, a slew of other companies, including Intuit and Facebook, are now offering 20-percent time as well.

At W. L. Gore, a half-day of every employee’s week is turned over to “dabble time” for projects entirely of their choosing. The company is best known for its breathable waterproof fabric GORE-TEX, which is used in many kinds of sportswear. But Gore has also developed such wildly varied products as dental floss, cardiac implants, and industrial gaskets and hoses. “At its core, Gore is a marketplace of ideas,” observes Gary Hamel in his book The Future of Management. The discretionary time enjoyed by employees has served as the main fuel for this innovation machine.

One of the more spectacular fruits of dabble time is the company’s line of guitar strings, which keep their tone several times longer than ordinary guitar strings. This is achieved by virtue of a special coating that was developed from a Gore effort to improve push-pull cables. Elixir Strings were originally a dabble time project; now, they have cornered the U.S. market for guitar strings.

These examples are evidence that breakthroughs happen when people attend to their professional curiosities and set aside time for deliberate learning. Dabble time is not wasted time. It is a seedbed of innovation, a habit that expands the store of knowledge.

Every professional can be encouraged to make time for learning or experimentation, even during the work day. It could be a matter of what they do with the half-hour before they get going in the morning or during lunch. They could be asked: Do you check in on blogs, scan The Wall Street Journal, jot down some wild ideas? Are there any particular web sites that seem to be most deserving of your learning time?

Another avenue is to spend core work hours more deliberately—with an eye toward ideas and knowledge. What kinds of questions are you (and your people) asking at meetings? What sorts of conversations are you pursuing in the hallways? What are you noticing when you visit a partner or come in contact with a customer? How will your work on the project today add to what you know, not just what you do? Henry David Thoreau put it this way: “It’s not enough to be busy. So are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?” Everyone today should be busy about learning new things and seeking out ideas.

Whether you’re carving out new time or learning more intently in the course of regular work, the key is to somehow become liberated from the routine. Too often, the normal procedure is to stay narrowly focused on doing the work, rather than on learning what’s needed to improve the work. Executives and indeed most professionals today understand that they need to invest in themselves in order to create extraordinary value for their organizations. One way of doing so is to, literally or otherwise, sell a productive hour of the day to yourself, for continued learning.

Four Tenets of Growth for 2011

Four Tenets of Growth: How CEOs Can Drive Results and Profits in 2011

Check out the Vistage White paper featuring advice from Vistage CEOs and Vistage Speakers on driving growth and profits in the coming year by focusing on the following four areas:

1. Redefine Your Customer Acquisition Strategy

2. Maximize Your Health Care Options

3. Go Green (It’s not just a fad anymore)

4. Become an Efficiency Machine

What are you doing to drive Growth this year? To read the white paper click: http://bit.ly/h2uHoY