December 15, 2019

The Way We Manage is Changing – Are You?

brian smith-pld, Coaching, Entrepreneurship, Leadership Development, management, Mentorship, Personal Development, Personal Values, Personality Types, Reformed Control Freak, Self-Help, Soft-Skills Training, Teacher, Uncategorized

management-training-1[2].jpg I’m old enough to remember working in the 1960s. (Yes – I’m that old.) Back in those days, you didn’t question authority. When management told you to jump – the only question you were allowed to ask was how high. Social Psychologist Douglas McGregor branded that style of management as Theory X. Management believed that people were inherently lazy and needed to be bullied or brow-beaten into performing their work. Unfortunately, there are still managers out there who use that style in an attempt to motivate their workforce. Times have certainly changed. What you need to decide now is – will the management style that got you here – be the same style that will get you to where you need to go? Would you work for you?

There’s been a dramatic shift in people’s attitudes towards work. Worker’s wants and needs have changed. For the newest generation, life outside of work – is just as important as life at work. Today’s managers and business leaders must manage differently to keep pace with that change if they want an engaged and productive workforce. Productivity is still the name of the game and that equation will never change. Management’s role is to minimize input and maximize output. Unfortunately downsizing, another word for layoffs and thin margins have put added pressure on managers to hold the line on the expense side of the ledger while still growing the profit side. In order to accomplish both managers must switch from being task-focused to people-focused.

Daniel Goleman, in his groundbreaking book – Working with Emotional Intelligence, said it best. “We are being judged by a new yardstick: not just how smart we are, or by our training and expertise, but also by how well we handle our selves and each other”. If you can’t make an emotional connection with the people you work with and interact with, you stand little chance of managing or leading. The good news is that managers and leaders aren’t born – they’re made. You can learn how to communicate and interact more successfully, build collaborative teams, problem solve, negotiate win-wins and motivate others to perform at their personal best. It just depends on how willing you are to change. Trust me – If you don’t, you’ll go the way of the dodo bird and dinosaurs.

December 9, 2019

Are You Ready For Generation Z ?

brian smith-pld, Coaching, Dealing with Difficult People, Leadership Development, management, Mentorship, Personal Development, Personality Types, Reformed Control Freak, Self-Help, Soft-Skills Training, Uncategorized

Are you ready for Generation Z? If you thought managing and leading Millennials was a challenge – Generation Z is a whole different ball game. Gen Z, born between 1995 and 2005, are the first truly wired generation who adopt quickly to new technologies. The leading edge of this generation are just entering the workforce. According to the most recent stats they now make up 40% of the working and consumer population. Chances are they are already working for you. The data suggests they will soon out number millennials. Are you ready?

The good news is that people are just people. Everyone wants to feel that they are valued and are treated with respect. They want to be included – not excluded – on matters that will impact them personally or professionally. They want to know that they have been heard and that their contributions to team success is not only encouraged but are appreciated. They want management to take a vested interest in their development by equipping them with the skills set they’ll need to take advantage of any opportunites for advancement.

No one likes to be micro managed. You need to inject some autonomy and allow them do their thing their way as long as it accomplishes the task on time and on budget. Timely face to face communication is important. They need to know how they are doing – good or bad. For the first time in our lifetime we have the potential of working with 4 different generations in the same workplace. Each generation communicates and interacts differently. Each generation is motivated by different wants. Each generation manages and likes to be managed differently. However, when you get right down to it the common denominator is that people are just people. Treat them accordingly and the challenges managing and leading each generation won’t matter.

Copyright (c) 2019. Brian Smith, Power Link Dynamics. Not to be reproduced without permission. To find out more about Brian and how he can help you and your organization visit: https://briansmithpld.com

November 24, 2019

Your Only Competitive Advantage

brian smith-pld, Coaching, Competitive Advantage, Customer Service, management, Reformed Control Freak, Soft-Skills Training

Product, price, promotion or place is no longer a competitive advantage. The only competitive advantage that you have left is the level of customer service you provide. To provide exceptional customer service is not that difficult. You only have to be better than your competition. Based on the results of a recent survey of 1281 consumers it doesn’t appear to be that big of a deal. 55% of the respondents said that they would shop elsewhere because of a “don’t care attitude”. 35% said being ignored by a sales person while they carried on a personal conversation on the sales floor or on the phone would be a good enough reason to leave. 58% of those surveyed sited rudeness as a reason to go elsewhere. 42% would go out of their way to do business where they got polite, respectful treatment. Let me repeat that again. 42% would go out of their way to do business where they got polite, respectful treatment. What level of customer service are you providing? More importantly, what lever of customer service is your sales team providing? Remember – to be exceptional in the eyes of the consumer you only have to be better than your competition.

November 17, 2019

Selling is a Contact Sport

brian smith-pld, Coaching, Competitive Advantage, Customer Service, Enduring Principles, Entrepreneurship, Ethics, Leadership Development, Networking, Personal Development, Personal Values, Reformed Control Freak, Self-Help, Soft-Skills Training

People Love to Do Business with People They Like

People love to do business with people they like and trust. How do you get people to trust you? Trust is a by-product of building those all-important relationships. Some people are better at it then others, but you can learn how. First you need to establish rapport. Find out what they like to do outside of the workplace and use that to strike up a conversation. Do they have a hobby? Do they enjoy cooking, tending to the garden or watching sports? Once you have established a rapport comes a relationship. You can’t build a relationship until you have established a rapport. Out of that relationship comes mutual respect. Others will not respect you until you have built a relationship. If they respect you – they will trust you because they believe you have their best interest at heart. Once they trust you – more than likely they will go along with what ever you recommend.