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December 27th, 2011
I grabbed a cab home from a birthday party one night and as has often happened in my life, I found the cabbie more interesting to talk to than anyone I met at the party.
He was just picking up a pager message as we set off. “Good news, the TTC strike for tomorrow is off,” he announced as he started the meter.
“Is that good news? I thought you’d look forward to a strike as a boost to your income,” I replied. Having spent seven years as the editor of Taxi News, I’m familiar with the industry.
This driver was not so worried about the income boost. “Eh,” he shrugged. “Some guys think they’re going to make a million dollars in one day. It’s not possible,” he pointed out, doing the math for me. “The best you can do, if you’re busy all day, is about $350. A strike might be better than usual, but the stress of the traffic and the anxious people isn’t worth it.”
Given my devotion to Carnegie Stress and Worry Principles, I was instantly interested. “How do you cope with the stress?” I asked.
“Oh, you can’t get too worked up,” he replied casually. “You have to keep things in perspective. Nothing is worth stressing yourself out over.”
Leaning comfortably back in his seat, window down on a pleasant spring evening, he was for all the world the personification of a whole series of Carnegie Principles: Ask yourself how much worry a thing is worth and refuse to give it any more. Don’t let the beetles get you down. Live in day-tight compartments. You can’t saw sawdust.
I was impressed.
Then the conversation meandered to talk of family and the stress associated with in-laws in particular. My driver was from India, so I was surprised when he stated his solution to in-law stress:
“The only way to get along with in-laws,” he stated emphatically, “is to keep them out of your house and see them as little as possible.”
“Really?” I asked, genuinely curious. Both of my sons had girlfriends from South Asian backgrounds – Bengali and Filipino – and their huge extended families and living arrangements seem a very normal part of the mix. “I thought it was common in your culture to have lots of contact with in-laws and even have multi-generational families living together.”
My imperturbable cab driver, who apparently had no problem with TTC strikes, anxious passengers, closing time drunks, risk of robbery, ticketing cops and terminal traffic in Toronto, was adamant.
“The only way to get along with your in-laws is to avoid them as much as possible,” he stated with absolute confidence.
“In-law stress,” he concluded, “transcends all cultures.”
I couldn’t write lines like that if I tried.
Tags: In-law stress transcends all cultures, In-law stress transcends all cultures by Rita Smith, Rita Smith, stress
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December 23rd, 2011
 There is one thing for which human beings have a longing, Dale Carnegie wrote, “almost as deep, almost as imperious as the desire for food or sleep – which is seldom gratified.” He quotes William James: “The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated.” Carnegie considered this deep-seated human longing so important, it is Principle #2 in “How to Win Friends”: Give honest and sincere appreciation.
This Christmas, I got to see a magical example of Principle #2 in action, and witness the ludicrous amount of happiness generated by one dozen simple words. It was heart-warming to see the effect on people a single, sincere compliment.
Sunday, I was shivering at the York University hockey arena where my daughter Johannah was playing in goal. As we all huddled together, cheering for her team and trying to keep warm, her Uncle Dave pulled out a white bakery box and offered us cookies. And not just any cookies: these were jam-filled butter cookies from Hansen’s Danish Pastry Shop on Pape Avenue. Now run by Kim Hansen, it is a third-generation family business that cranks out thousands and thousands of the best cookies and pastries in Toronto.
“Just so you know,” my son Tom remarked casually, “Danish cookies aren’t even this good in Denmark.” Given that he’s the only member of our family that’s ever been to Denmark, we took his word for it. In fact I even snapped a photo of him holding up a cookie, just for posterity.
The very next day I was grocery shopping when a little commotion broke out in the line ahead of me. I looked up to see Kim Hansen – wearing her flour-covered “Danish Pastry Shop” apron – questioning the price of her onion purchase with Voula, the cashier.
The sight of two of the most practical and hard-working women I know arguing over the price of onions on one of the busiest shopping days of the year made me laugh out loud.
“I can’t believe you even have time to be thinking about this,” I offered, knowing full well that the line-up at the Danish Pastry Shop would be out the door and around the block by this time of the day.
“I’m just trying to feed my staff,” Kim sighed in exasperation. “Everyone is so exhausted.” Christmas at the Danish Pastry Shop is like running a never-ending marathon for its employees.
I got home and hauled in my own groceries. I should do something nice for Kim’s staff, I thought, recalling the photo I had coincidentally snapped the day before.
I pasted the photo into a Word document and added Tom’s simple quote: “Just so you know…Danish cookies aren’t even this good in Denmark.” I printed off copies and ran around the corner to the Danish Pastry.
Elizabeth and Kathy were just packing food away as they closed up the shop. I handed Elizabeth the pages and said, “Here, post these in the back where the staff can see them. Just something to help keep you going over the next five days, because your work is such a giant part of so many family celebrations in our community.”
Elizabeth’s eyes opened wide like saucers and she was almost speechless for a moment.
“Rita, thank you so much for doing this!” she exclaimed. “Everyone will love this!”
“We nourish the bodies of our children and friends and employees, but how seldom do we nourish their self-esteem? We provide them with roast beef and potatoes to build energy, but we neglect to give them kind words of appreciation that would sing in their memories for years like the music of the morning stars,” Carnegie wrote. “Give honest, sincere appreciation. Be ‘hearty in your approbation and lavish in your praise,’ and people will cherish your words and treasure them and repeat them over a lifetime – repeat them years after you have forgotten them.”
Just so you know…
Tags: Creating magic with a few words by Rita Smith, Rita Smith
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December 20th, 2011
One horrible winter night, I was snowed in a motel room in Niagara.
I had taken me hours to get there from Toronto and after I arrived, I found out the night’s class had been cancelled. My left leg was broken and in a cast; my exposed toes were cold and wet. I was frustrated, tired and cranky. To top it off, I’d had an argument with one of my sons before leaving home and was still replaying our bitter words in my mind.
Alone and snowed in on a miserable evening, it seemed a perfect time to spend several uninterrupted hours stewing and brooding about how thankless and ungrateful children are. Just to think about all the long years I had put in, the work I’d done, the stress I had endured, the MONEY I’d spent – $6000 for one set of braces alone! $5000 for a brand new computer which crashed when they downloaded too many songs from the Internet! My grocery bill alone could fund a third-world nation!
I was getting so worked up that I found myself pacing, stumping my broken leg back and forth across the small motel room.
Fortunately, I had my Carnegie books with me. Given that there would be no class that night, I decided to just crack open “How to Stop Worrying and Start Living” and get some reading done.
As luck would have it, the book fell open to Chapter 3: “If you do this, you will never worry about ingratitude.”
Carnegie’s voice and personality leapt right off the page. Within minutes I found myself no longer angry, and actually laughing out loud.
“Christ helped ten lepers in one afternoon – but how many of those lepers even stopped to thank Him? Only one. Look it up in Saint Luke,” Carnegie challenges. “When Christ turned around to his disciples and asked, ‘Where are the other nine?’ they had all run away. Disappeared without thanks! Let me ask you a question: Why should you and I …expect more thanks for our small favours than was given Jesus Christ?”
Hmmm…well, when you put it that way…
“That’s how it goes. Human nature has always been human nature – and it probably won’t change in your lifetime. So why not accept it?…If you and I go around grumbling about ingratitude, who is to blame? Is it human nature – or is it our ignorance of human nature? Let’s not expect gratitude. Then, if we get some occasionally, it will come as a delightful surprise. If we don’t get it, we won’t be disturbed.”
As is his way, Carnegie bothers to stop and reiterate his point in italics for emphasis, just in case the reader is too thick to understand the very plain language he used the first time:
“Here is the point I am trying to make in this chapter: It is natural for people to forget to be grateful; so, if we go around expecting gratitude, we are headed straight for a lot of heartaches.”
To avoid resentment and worry, Carnegie offers a brilliant, pithy two-word principle that changed my whole evening, my whole winter, and my attitude forever ever after:
“Expect ingratitude.”
Tags: holiday stress, Reduce Stress, Rtia Smith, stress, Technique guaranteed to reduce your holiday stress by Rita Smith
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December 20th, 2011
Christmas is a magical time. It is just what we need in these challenging economic times. Too often we need something to wake us up about its magic and, when we do wake up, we focus on what is really important…. Making family, friends, employees and team member’s happy.
The Big Secret of Dealing with People
“The desire to be important and appreciated is the deepest urge in human nature”, said Dale Carnegie. William James called it a craving.
If you want to energize your team to adapt to what is required in 2012, or if you want to watch others feel good about themselves’ and see greater opportunities, then give them sincere appreciation, especially at Christmas. Write a sincere appreciation message in their cards. Speak about it at the Christmas party, and watch them glow! Your words could make a big difference to them. And of course, give appreciation to your children, spouse, father, mother, in-laws and friends. Watch what happens to you and them. Sure there are a few things they are not good at, improvements they could make, things you don’t like, but it’s that way for you too. Believe me, others know.
Appreciation arouses enthusiasm among your people. Better yet, call a customer, just to tell them sincerely how much you appreciate their business and add what you like about them. If you’re a little nervous about doing it, that’s good. That means it is very meaningful to you and your sincerity will show. The point is…. Do something memorable!
Whatever you do to get people laughing and enjoying the Christmas spirit says a lot about you and the team, the environment and the values of the organization. Make sure in some small, funny way the Grinch doesn’t live at your place.
Who will you be at Christmas?
Create the spirit of Christmas. Tell at least three employees, friends and family what you appreciate about them, why you say it and give an example. You will be creating a Merry Christmas for you and others you care about. Better yet, make this your big secret of success in 2012. Continually apply appreciation to your customers and employees.
Create a wonderful time with your family, friends and loved ones over the next couple of weeks. It doesn’t always require money to do that.
Make time to relax, recharge and laugh a lot. Looking forward to talking to you in the New Year about kicking off a great 2012 by facing the challenges of building your business, your team and yourself.
Merry Christmas and Happy 2012.
Have a wonderfully holiday. Have a great week.
 100th Anniversary Award
We’re proud to appreciate and recognize very important people lives, the Fairmont Royal York hotel. We presented them with a Dale Carnegie Leadership award for their commitment in developing and engage team over the last fourteen years. The Leadership Award was created by Dale Carnegie & Associates in 1985 to recognize companies who are dedicated to the ideal that their people, their employees, are as important to the overall success of the organization as any technology, patent or business strategy. These are companies who are committed to improving their performance by developing their people.
Get on the list
We are excited about celebrating our one hundredth year beginning in January 2012. As a result, we launched an offering to give a selected number of businesses quick and easy ways to build their business. We are creating a list of those business people who want to be informed of this special offer in celebration of our 100 years. If you wish to be added to the list, click on my email below and we’ll keep you informed. This invitation is for owners and executives.
Overall, these strategies and techniques will help you put innovation into your organization’s DNA, set up ways to grow revenues, operate in such a way that you can hit stretch goals and improve the capacity and competitiveness of your team.
Watch my short invitation video here
Email me to get a spot on the list kdcrone@dalecarnegie.ca
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December 16th, 2011
As a political volunteer of many years, I have picked up a number of survival skills in order to endure the inevitable disappointments that accompany the high-stakes, all-or-nothing, “first past the post” reality of our electoral system.
I have stood by neophytes making their first unsuccessful run at office – I have even been that person. That’s hard enough.
Infinitely worse is to see the face of a good, honest, hard-working public servant as the vote counts come in and realization dawns that they are being fired by the people to whom they’ve dedicated their lives. It’s a heart-wrenching, gut-twisting, sickening experience. At least one politician inOntariocommitted suicide after such a rejection, and many others have spiraled into the depths of depression.
Politics is a blood sport; so is business. That’s why the emotional survival skills are so important.
The very first campaign in which I ever volunteered was for Peter Zahakos, an honest decent businessman and devoted family man. I had two small toddlers, and the time I could donate to his campaign was limited.
Peter devoted himself completely and ran a great campaign. For a first-timer, he did surprisingly well: when the vote count came in on election night it was deemed too close to call. The next morning we learned that Pete had lost by 30 votes.
30 votes! I felt sick to my stomach. In fact, I felt sick to my stomach for A YEAR after that election. I was filled with regret at the work I had not done: the leaflets I could have passed out, the doors upon which I could have knocked, the phone calls I could have made. 30 votes! He worked hard for most of a year on that election, and I gave barely a dozen hours. I should have been able to bring in a measly 30 votes all by myself.
That experience taught me a hard lesson which I have applied ever since, in politics, in business, and in all of life: if you’re going to do something, go all out. Go flat out – invest every single ounce of energy and brainpower that you have in the project.
A job worth doing is worth doing well: if it’s not worth doing well, don’t waste your time on it.
Then, when the results come in, either you’ve succeeded or you’ve failed, but at least you will not have months of regret and lingering sadness, that sick feeling that comes from knowing if you had just pushed a little harder, you could have done it.
Losing is bearable; regret is excruciating!
That’s why I love this Dale Carnegie principle for reducing stress and worry: “Do the very best job you can,” Carnegie advised simply. Once you’ve done the very best job you can, there is nothing further to worry about because that worry will get you nothing.
Carnegie quotes Abraham Lincoln: “I do the very best I know how – the very best I can; and I mean to keep doing so until the end. If the end brings me out all right, than all that’s said against me won’t matter. If the end brings me out wrong, then ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference.”
Do the very best job you can. Then get on with the next thing, and waste no time regretting.
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December 13th, 2011
My son David, now a Captain in Canada’s infantry, came home from his first year of basic and officer training with a memorable piece of advice.
“One of the officers who came to speak to us during training had just returned from Afghanistan,” David recounted.
“During his presentation, he told us, ‘You think that when the going gets tough and the worst things are happening, you will rise up to the best level of your nature. In fact, you will fall back to the best level of your training.’”
Those words have had a lasting impact on me.
Last year, while working on a very long, very complicated, very challenging contract for a client which is one of the largest corporations in Canada, I was almost overwhelmed by the magnitude of the job and the bitter acrimony that existed between the executives. On many days I was actually physically ill with stress.
I recall sitting at my desk one morning, stomach churning, thinking “I have to find a way to handle this. There must be something I can learn, something I can do, to make this situation manageable.”
And then like magic, David’s words came back to me. “You won’t live up to the best level of your nature. You will fall back to the best level of your training.”
“Wait a second!” I realized, in a moment of complete epiphany. “I ALREADY know how to handle stress. I TEACH stress management principles – I just need to apply those skills to this situation. I don’t need to invent anything new. I just need to do WHAT I AM ALREADY TRAINED TO DO.
That night I hauled out my battered, dog-eared, highlighted copy of Dale Carnegie’s “How to Stop Worrying and Start Living” and reviewed his time-tested principles. Reading with new eyes, thinking specifically of how to apply each principle to my current work environment, I felt my confidence and enthusiasm returning.
Live in day-tight compartments; don’t fuss about trifles; co-operate with the inevitable; never try to get even with your enemies. Ask yourself: what’s the worst that can happen? Accept the worst, then proceed to improve upon the worst.
As always, Carnegie’s plain-spoken, common-sense advice cut through the fog in my mind. I was calmer, and could think clearly. I had a plan; I knew exactly how to proceed the next day. “Fall back on the best level of your training,” I heard David’s voice reminding me.
This week I was in our High Impact Presentations program with an engineer who gave a talk on a potentially fatal event which occurred while he was scuba diving with his wife. Having descended along a rope to view a shipwreck at 80 feet below, he turned to see his wife’s eyes wide with panic. Her regulator was blocked and she was receiving no oxygen.
“She was ready to let go of the rope and shoot straight to the surface,” he said. “I knew that would have killed her. I grabbed a hold of her, and the rope, and slowly we made our way to the top with me stopping to share my air with her every few feet.
“The only thing that saved us in that situation was my training – my actions were automatic. I knew what to do, and I did it. My advice to you,” he wound up his talk, “is this: trust your training. It could save your life.”
I would add to that: during your career, get all the training you can. Sign up, with enthusiasm, to take advantage of every training opportunity presented to you. Practice your new skills until your actions become automatic, and one day, perhaps when you least expect it, you’ll need those skills – and you’ll have them. You will be able to fall back on the best level of your training.
Tags: Managing stress, Rita Smith, Train as if everything depends on it.
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December 12th, 2011
 Kevin D. Crone - Monday Morning Mentor
Do you know what is even more contagious? The lack of it! On the opening morning of the NHL season I was eager to see the first hockey game of the campaign between storied original six teams Montreal and Toronto. After listening to the media’s over analysis by dozens of ex-jocks, newspaper, radio, and people who all needed to show how smart they were, from early morning to just before the game, I began to slowly feel less enthused. It made me realize the difference between contaminating someone’s mind with sarcasm and cynical views and the fun and excitement thinking about new goals and a vision.
Imagine never allowing yourself to feel the excitement and anticipation of new or important events. For example Christmas Day, your child’s wedding, going on a trip, your annual fishing trip, buying a home, a new car. All these events and many more that happen in our lives are special. They don’t always turn out perfectly but who cares. They are exciting and if we over think them we won’t enjoy them. When in Florida I invited a bunch of neighbors to walk down the street to the beach with a cooler of drinks and snacks, with chairs in tow, to watch the sun go down. None of these neighbors had done this in ten years. They got excited. Everyone pitched in with something. We acted like the tourists and really enjoyed something that was right under our noses.
What are the many more things we could take the time for in our routine fast-forward lives that would be fun to anticipate, experience and enjoy? It is so easy to loose our enthusiasm about things. We stop doing things that mattered and the anticipation and joy are never to be found again. When your enthusiasm goes you are boring. Dale Carnegie wrote that we should fight for happiness every day. He suggested that we put enthusiasm into our work, our family time, our travels, and basically into everything and we will wind up taking one big bite out of life.
What can all of this mean to us? Here are some ideas:
1. Act like a tourist in your town. And enjoy it.
2. Act like you are just meeting your family and friends and really get to know them.
3. Act like you are a new hire at your company. What are the good things going on there? What are the opportunities right under your nose?
4. Act as if every day was a new chance to achieve something that didn’t seem possible in your business because no one ever thought it possible and just flat out never tried.
5. Act as if you really could impact the team around something they were cynical or afraid of. Cynics are people who were once excited, failed too often, and gave up. That is not a terminal disease. A disease yes and a very infectious one, but everyone can get excited about something.
6. Act as if every employee was special and had a desire to make things work. When you lose your expectations of them they usually go south.
7. Act as if it was special to go to work every day helping customer’s change their lives.
Yes I mean act as if. Your mind doesn’t know the difference between action that is put on for a moment and an action that is real. Act it and the feelings will follow. So if you act enthusiastic you will become enthusiastic. It is difficult to act two different ways at once (ie. Being courageous and being scared.) So put more enthusiasm into your life this week and see what happens. You are a successful business person with much to be thankful for This week let your face know it, your customers know it, your team know it, and you will have a good week. And just enjoy the things under your nose. They are real – they are there. You just need to see them, act on them, and squeeze every interesting thing out of them.
Have a great week.
Kevin
Get on the list
We are excited about celebrating our one hundredth year beginning in January 2012. As a result, we launched an offering to give a selected number of businesses quick and easy ways to build their business. We are creating a list of those business people who want to be informed of this special offer in celebration of our 100 years. If you wish to be added to the list, click on my email below and we’ll keep you informed. This invitation is for owners and executives.
Overall, these strategies and techniques will help you put innovation into your organization’s DNA, set up ways to grow revenues, operate in such a way that you can hit stretch goals and improve the capacity and competitiveness of your team.
Posted in Monday Morning Mentor | No Comments »
December 9th, 2011
Putting people first: the Fairmont Royal York Hotel focuses on its people, wins Leadership award from Dale Carnegie Business Group
November 22, 2011 (Toronto) – The Fairmont Royal York Hotel was presented with the Dale Carnegie & Associates 2011 Leadership Award today.
The Leadership Award was created by Dale Carnegie & Associates in 1985 to recognize companies who are dedicated to the ideal that their people, their employees, are as important to the overall success of the organization as any technology, patent or business strategy. These are companies who are committed to improving their performance by developing their people.
Dale Carnegie Training, a world leader in the field of staff development through improved communications and human relations, will celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2012. Today’s Leadership Award Presentation marks the launch of one year of Carnegie Anniversary Celebrations.
“Both the Dale Carnegie organization and the Fairmont Royal York Hotel believe that putting people first, investing in people and building relationships with employees and customers is the first priority in business. That is why Carnegie and the Fairmont Royal York Hotel have worked so well together for almost 15 years,” says Kevin Robert Crone, Managing Partner at the Dale Carnegie Business Group in Toronto.
“The Fairmont Royal York has consistently demonstrated its commitment to its employees through a wide range of programs and policies designed to bring out the best in its people, which is why the Carnegie Awards selection committee chose to present the 2011 Leadership Award to the Fairmont Royal York.”
Over the past 14 years Dale Carnegie and the Royal York have worked in partnership to help staff develop and grow. Three Fairmont Royal York Hotel managers enrol in every Dale Carnegie program offered; to date, approximately 180 managers have graduated from the course. An estimated 1700 people have graduated the Dale Carnegie course on the Fairmont Royal York’s premises, and thousands more have attended specialty workshops, seminars and preview meetings.
Employees at the Fairmont Royal York have access to programs including management training, high potential internal talent mentoring, ongoing coaching and cross-training system. Staff can access tuition reimbursement for education programs including a partnership with Cornell University online degrees.
The hotel offers monthly and annual recognition awards, along with daily informal “Bravo Grams.” “Businesses which commit to Carnegie principles are among the most successful in Canada. Clients of the Royal York see this commitment everyday, in every detail of the service provided to them. People come first here,” notes Crone.
The Leadership Award was presented by Kevin Crone of the Dale Carnegie Business Group to Andrew den Oudsten, Hotel Manager, and Anna Chartres, Regional Director of Human Resources for the Fairmont Royal York Hotel at the hotel’s monthly Managers’ meeting. “Our colleagues are part of a 100-year tradition of delivering excellent service at some of the most iconic
hotels in the world, but it is our service and our people that makes Fairmont hotels and resorts so memorable for our guests,” says Anna Chartres.
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December 7th, 2011
The First Commandment in the advertising industry is this:
“Never ask a rhetorical question to which your listener can answer, ‘No.’”
If there is any wiggle room whatsoever for a potential customer to answer a question in the negative, DON’T ask it.
For example, “Would you like more information on new government initiatives?” (NO!!!!!!!!)
“Would you like our salesman to call you with great news on our product?” (NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
Better questions are the kind that most people would answer ‘Yes’ to in most circumstances, for example, “Would you like to know how you can pay less in taxes this year?”
(The majority people would answer ‘Yes’ to that question, but many don’t want to think about taxes at all, so they might still answer ‘No.’)
The best questions are the ones to which your prospect or audience just absolutely must answer ‘Yes,’ as there can be no other answer.
A question like this might be, “Are you proud of your son’s ‘straight A’ report card?” or “Are you interested in knowing how you can drastically increase your profits?”
The smartest politician I ever worked for used to begin every speech, no matter the topic, by congratulating the organizers of the event and asking the audience, “Don’t you think Mrs. Jones and her group have done a terrific job putting together today’s event? Let’s give them a round of applause in thanks.”
No matter how cantankerous the audience or how contentious the subject of his speech, the essentially polite and courteous Canadians in the audience could not say “No” to the request, which would have humiliated poor hard-working Mrs. Jones, standing off to the side of the stage blushing with pride at the compliment.
And so every speech he gave BEGAN with a warm round of applause and an audience full of people saying “Yes, yes” right away, before he even began speaking. I noticed very early on that the act of saying “Yes,” and applauding seemed to open up the audience and put them in a friendly and receptive mood for his speech, which was one of the reasons he did it.
“Get the other person saying ‘Yes, yes’ at the outset,” Carnegie wrote in Win Friends. “Keep your opponent, if possible, from saying ‘No’…a ‘No’ response is a most difficult handicap to overcome. When you have said ‘No,’ all your pride of personality demands that you remain consistent with yourself. You may later feel that the ‘No’ was ill-advised; nevertheless, there is your precious pride to consider! Once having said a thing, you feel you must stick to it. Hence it is of the very greatest importance that a person be started in the affirmative direction.”
On the other hand, Carnegie continues, a skillful speaker “gets, at the outset, a number of ‘Yes’ responses. This sets the psychological process of the listeners moving in the affirmative direction. It is like the movement of a billiard ball. Propel in one direction, and it takes some force to deflect it; far more force to send it back in the opposite direction.”
That’s Carnegie’s Principle #14 in a nutshell: make sure the “Billiard Balls of your Business” are being propelled in a ‘Yes’ direction that helps you – do everything in your power to make the first or subsequent shot once which will NOT move you in a ‘No’ direction.
Get the other person saying ‘Yes, yes’ right away.
Would you use this simple principle if it could double YOUR sales?
Posted in Dale Carnegie Tools, Rita Smith | No Comments »
December 5th, 2011
Oh how the world has changed. It wasn’t that long ago that our lives were not influenced so much by the internet, social media, smart phones and IPad’s. There was a time when getting better at your job by improving your skills mattered a lot. If you were into being successful, then you studied what it took (knowledge). Then you took programs to help you become effective. (skills). That was the time when quality was more important than speed. Practicing the essentials of the skill until it got into your nervous system was the difference between being good or average. To those who understood that for things to get better you have to get better, they made a lot of distinctions of really important essentials, then spent time getting good at them and sticking to them until their performance caught up with their intentions.
Today, we are sorry to say that we see sloppiness and taking the easy way permeating our business culture. For example:
Does anyone get professional selling anymore and the skills and habits that make it work? Companies depend so much on marketing that their manager’s stop teaching and coaching the essentials of selling. And those that lived and succeeded by them aren’t asked to mentor anyone. We cannot kid ourselves believing being good at selling isn’t necessary anymore. How are your sales? Are they going up or down? Either way, those that can really find, and convince customers what is good for them can make all the difference to your business. That is true with a lot of other skills as well. Unless people are growing, it is very difficult to grow your business. What, you know it all? You are better than your competition? Nothing has changed in your market? Your offering never gets tired and old? Everything stays the same? You are the same?
After being in the industry of helping companies and people grow for 45 years, and being part of a company that has succeeded for 100 years, I can candidly say that people in business don’t seem to have the same desire to improve themselves. Are we all so bluffed out by technical advances that we don’t believe that being an excellent leader, manager, client-focused producer of happy clients, and profits matter? Do we not see that we are measured every day on what we say, how we say it, and whether or not it turns people on? Do we actually believe that how we treat others, get along with and bring others along with our ideas doesn’t matter anymore? Don’t you think your presentations to your clients or internally can actually make or break you and your career? What fantasy spoiled world are we living in?
I remember doing some coaching and training in Taiwan and China many years ago. All the participants were so serious and interested in getting better. After giving them an incredible amount of things to learn and practice, they would stay up half the night practicing in small work groups until everyone was comfortable and skilled. That didn’t mean they were any less fearful of doing things they were not confident at any more than us. It was just that they were more willing to do the work to get better than any group I ever worked with in North America. When I got back, I gave a speech to a Chamber of Commerce and warned everyone about how Asia is going to eat our lunch? How does North America stack up today?
If you want to wake up your business then I suggest that you wake up the skills, attitudes and competencies of yourself and your people. I know we won’t stay up practicing because we don’t want to miss an episode of House or the Good Wife. We have the same fears but don’t want to stay at our skill development for too long. Besides we can always Google answers. Again, let me repeat something that seems to be forgotten today. Knowing something doesn’t mean you can do it well. Education and knowledge just gets you in the game. Being good at it determines how successful you are. Imagine going up in a plane and finding out the pilot is a smart graduate of flight school but he has never flown a plane? How confident would you be? You would be looking for a parachute. Only 15% of our success will ever be attributed to our knowledge and 85% to our attitude and skill.
Unfortunately, we are being bluffed out more and more thinking knowledge is everything. It isn’t. It never will be. People and organization’s who are learning, growing their skills and attitudes, are the ones who are improving their businesses and lives.
ACTIONS: Questions to answer on paper
1) What skills and attitudes do successful people have?
2) How do you stack up? Where do you need to get better?
3) What competencies are important to your company and its business strategy today?
4) What do your people need to be better at as a result?
5) What do you need to get better at?
6) What are you going to do right away to make sure you do get better?
Have a great week!
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We are excited about celebrating our one hundredth year beginning in January 2012. As result, we launched an offering to give a selected number of businesses quick and easy ways to build their business. We are creating a list of those business people who want to be informed of this special offer in celebration of our 100 years. If you wish to be added to the list, click on my email below and we’ll keep you informed. This invitation is for owners and executives. Overall, these strategies and techniques will help you put innovation into your organization’s DNA, set up ways to grow revenues, operate in such a way that you can hit stretch goals and improve the capacity and competitiveness of your team.
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