Employees – Earn more – be worth more, break the rules

MN Employees: Do you want more money and a bigger salary or paycheck?

Teach yourself and your boss why you should be paid more.

The epic tale of the salesperson and the website that would not sell

I recently spoke to a salesperson for a global company.  His company still has not entered the Internet age.  They have a website, but they really don’t see the value in having people come to it, because they have no search engine optimization and no keywords – in other words, when you search for their service on google, they are NOWHERE to be found.  This means all the potential new customers go somewhere else.

Now, I told this salesperson that he needs to own responsibility to fix this problem.  He wasn’t convinced, so I asked him, how much would it be worth in additional sales?  He conservatively answered in the high 6 figures.  Needless to say if he made all these sales himself, it would mean a significant income boost for him also.

So then, the next question is, how much for search engine optimization?  Conservative estimates are in the three to four figure range.

So, um, let’s see, for thousands of dollars, he can receive a million dollar benefit? Or possibly more?

I told him that what he needs to do is own the responsibility for the website marketing in exchange for the leads.

Out of that, he could offer to give the additional sales to the other people on his sales force. Remember, we’re talking about him personally investing his own money in the marketing and promotion of the website for a 6 figure payoff.  If he wanted to, he could sell those leads to other sales people or take a percentage as a fee for managing the website.

But again, why not? Look at the math.  It’s worth it to him to start doing this immediately.

Will there be some challenges to convince his managers to let him take responsibility of the website? Probably. However, he’s a salesperson for pete’s sake. He needs to sell the benefits, which include the company no longer has to pay for a website that they really don’t care about and haven’t gotten results from.  They only care about sales, which is what his job is.  That’s what he offers.  “You give me control of the website, I’ll give you more sales.” Period.

It’s called aligning to common interests in sales-speak.

Now forget about him, let’s talk about you.  What do you bring that is of immediate value to yourself and to your company?  What do you bring to your customers?  Can you start bringing in more clients?  Would your company appreciate it? Would they appreciate it enough to pay you more?

If not, then would your company’s competition appreciate it more? IE would they appreciate it enough to pay you?  Maybe you’re working for the wrong company.

Never forget there’s more companies to work at than there are people like you who bring real value.

Learn more about leadership and value at http://srkinc.com and learn about making a difference at http://quantumcommonwealth.com

Alan Hill

(612) 819-1803

The Gift Of Adversity – Executive Leadership Trainer Shows You How

Business Leaders: Are you worried about the economic impact on your business?

Management Trainers: Is this your best opportunity to create value for your company?

“To whom much is given, much will be expected”

I always loved that verse in the bible.  But as you will see, I have a MUCH different take on it.

Most of us tend to think it implies those who have all the benefits of a wealthy income and lifestyle have an obligation to give back.  This is not a bad idea.  Trusting in someone to reach down to those who are disadvantaged is a great idea.

But what if you’ve not been given all the advantages?  What if you’ve only been given dis-advantages… what can be expected of you?

I have been given much adversity – how much will be expected of me?

Likewise, you may be experiencing some adversity in your business or work.  How much is going to be expected of you?

Here’s the point: What are you learning?  Some may learn “that which does not kill us, makes us stronger’.  That’s a great lesson, especially given some of the hubris of our last economic boom in America.

It’s also true that we learn a lot of value… real value… when challenged by adversity.  This might be expected of you to help your company during this economic downturn.

But what happens when you’re given more than just a little adversity?  Or perhaps more adversity than your peers?  What then will be expected of you?  How much more could be asked of someone in those circumstances?  Yet still, it rings out… “To whom much is given… much will be expected”

For me, a part of that answer is in teaching others to recognize the value of adversity.  To do more than just learn from challenge and change, but to go the extra mile and actively seek it out.  Welcome adversity and change.  A question I ask myself is: ‘How much a better person would I be if a little adversity is beneficial?”  And then “how much better would I be if there were more adversity?” and finally I ask myself “How much better would I be to others if I learned from THEIR mistakes and adversity, not just my own?”

Ultimately, “How much better would I be to the world if I taught this perspective to others… to learn from others mistakes and challenges as well as my own?”

What would the world be like in 10 years? 20 years? 50 years?

I have a lot to teach from my adversity.  What do you have to teach from yours?

Alan Hill

612) 819-1803

http://srkinc.com

http://quantumcommonwealth.com

Minnesota Leaders – Now you can easily teach teams to solve problems

MN Executive Coach reveals how to solve system problems

Did you know your business is a series of systems … all linked together?

This troubleshooting process allows you to perform each step in isolation.  Oftentimes problems in systems are intermittent, which may trick you into believing that you’ve solved the problem only to have it reappear later.

Requirements:

This process requires you have a system diagram of all component parts or at least a complete understanding of the parts of the overall system and how they integrate together.

You will also need an escalation list of people, teams, departments that are responsible for systems connected to yours.

Process

C – Confirm

I – Isolate

R – Resolve or attempt to resolve

V – Verify resolution has solved the problem

E – Escalate to another if resolution process fails

Confirm – This step asks you to ensure you can recreate the problem consistently. Once you can recreate the problem consistently you can more readily isolate (the next step).

Isolate – This step requires the system diagram.  Systems are usually designed in a linear or ‘chain link’ fashion, which means each component is linked to (or dependent upon) 1 or 2 other components before it.  This uses the old ‘garbage in-garbage out’ idea – if you’re having trouble with the output of a particular component, look at the components that are connected before that component and also component in question.

One easy way to perform this step is to temporarily replace the component or modify the procedure and then re-confirm the problem (the previous step) disappeared.

In human systems you can ask the person to ‘imagine… for the sake of argument…’ an alternative idea, feeling, response or thought.  This allows the person to ‘try on’ or ‘swap out’ one thought, feeling or response for another.

Resolve – Once you are sure you’ve found the root cause, replace the faulty component or procedure.  In business systems, this might mean you improve, change or delete the procedure.  In human systems ask the person to try a 30 day experiment – where they agree to act as if this new thought, feeling or response is a normal response.  The agreement is after 30 days if they don’t like the feedback they get from the new behavior then they can go back to the ‘old’ way of doing things.

Verify – This step is important and overlooked.  It’s more than just rebooting the system or declaring the ‘problem is solved’.  It includes monitoring for a period of time to ensure the system is stable.  If the system is not stable, you may either go back to the Confirm step or Escalate (the next step).

Escalate – Systems operate within systems – which means they have isolated inputs and outputs.  Therefore the entire system may be getting an input that needs to be fixed.  Computer systems may be getting incorrect data from a database.  Human systems may be getting bad information.  If the source of the fault is outside of the system, then escalate using the escalation list.

This process is a simple method for continuous business improvement.  You easily implement this by teaching it to your team with instructions to place blame on the process, not the people.  Teach them to use this method everytime there is an irate customer, a product delay or other business problem.

Here’s a secret, you don’t have to wait until something is broken to use this process and improve things.

Check us out at http://quantumcommonwealth.com for more great ways we can help you grow your business.

Leaders can be made. What roadblocks are you creating as a leader?

How do leaders make ‘it’ happen?

Hard way: do it yourself (not a leader)

Easy way: Through others.

What to do? Show them what you are doing and why. Leaders have sincerely told me that ‘you can’t teach people to ‘get it’”. It is often defined as the capability of ownership or initiative. Often called the essence of leadership. Once we explore what ‘it’ is, invariably we find out there’s a process for helping people ‘get it’ and it’s quite simple. Tell them what they don’t ‘get’.

I call the leaders attention to the process of simply telling others what they see and inviting everyone else to see it makes the entire process easier.

Does this work for everyone all the time? Of course not. Underneath this all requires a willingness on the part of the leader and the followers. If someone is unwilling to ‘get it’ or if a leader is unwilling to share what they ‘get’ then there’s not much chance of success, if any.

How exactly do people get it? The process of asking ‘why?” ‘Why would they say that?” “Why would they do that?” “What did he mean by that?” “Why is that important to them?” This defines context, creating purpose and meaning to the actions. The benefit of this is the ability to create leaders out of employees, regardless of their role in the organization.

Sometimes leaders ask how something so simple could be so effective. I invite them to notice that this is the exact internal process they use to spot challenges and opportunities. This makes ‘leadership’ much less of a mystery and art. It becomes a skill that can be transferred and taught.

If you are willing to experiment, try inviting your team to ask ‘why’ for 30 days. Before you do this, assess their current level of initiative on a scale of 1 to 5. Look for evidence of increased initiative during the 30 day period and then re-assess. You will notice that this simple technique is an effective way to make leaders in your organization.

Alan Hill is a business and executive leadership coach in Minneapolis, Minnesota with ActionCOACH, the world’s number one coaching company. If you would like to learn more about him or to contact him for a private consultation, check out his website at http://actioncoach.com/alanhill

Minneapolis Business Leaders, Become a Transformational Leader

Labor Dimensions

Leadership Dimensions

Multi-Dimensional Thinking

Develop instant leadership skills by asking great questions

Use the Transformation Matrix and become a transformational leader

 

Transforming from a manager or technician to a leader requires changing from having great answers to having great questions.  Questions designed to make your team think and inspire them to reach beyond the obvious answers.

 

I remember working with a CEO of a national construction firm.  During an initial meeting with a consulting group discussing ways to transform the company, the consultants made the mistake of stating ‘cheaper faster or better, you get control of your choice of two, we control the other one’.  The CEO ended the meeting rather abruptly by emphatically stating that in order to compete in his marketplace, his customer was demanding cheaper, faster, better AND more – and in order for him to be competitive he needed consultants ready to help him achieve improvements in all areas.

 

The simple solution for this CEO was to challenge his team to change how they perform their work to achieve gains in all areas – Cost (cheaper), Productivity (faster), Quality (better) and Capability (more).  These dimensions are the focus of technicians, engineers and skilled labor.  By creating trade-offs in these dimensions they create a balance of speed, performance, quality and capability.  What labor can’t do is achieve gains in all dimensions.

 

Leaders focus their attention in other dimensions.  Referred to as the ‘5 W’s of a leader; Who, What, When, Where, Why and how are the key dimensions great leaders relate to when considering any challenge or opportunity (see chart).  A transformational leader is able to combine these dimensions together to get powerful results.

 

Let’s say your team shows you a competitor’s new product that is significantly cheaper than yours.  Your team advises you that in order to match this, you’ll need to either decrease the quality or features or both and are asking for your decision.  What do you do?

 

Look at the combined chart.  Now you can ask transformation-based questions that cause your team’s thinking to expand.  Can you change ‘who” your customers are?  Can you change ‘where’ you get the raw materials in order to decrease your costs?  “What” additions can you incorporate into the product to increase the value?  “What” other uses are available for your product?  Can you change ‘how’ you manufacture the product by using different materials (plastic instead of steel)?  Can you change ‘where’ you manufacture the product – producing it on the customers premises – eliminating shipping and packaging costs? 

 

Using this matrix will allow you to lead your team to greater achievement in your marketplace.  Teaching this matrix to your employees and systematizing it’s use throughout your company will create a sustainable competitive advantage through continued innovation, which will turn your company into a transformational company.

 

Alan Hill is a business and executive coach in Minneapolis, Minnesota with ActionCOACH, the world’s number one business coaching company.  If you would like to learn more about him or to contact him for a private consultation, check out his website at http://actioncoach.com/alanhill  

Attention MN Business Owners…. Does Your Product or Service “Make or Break” Your Customers?

Creating compelling value.  Are you a transformational company?

 

Are you offering compelling value or just another ‘me too’ service?  Can you pick a client in an industry you serve and make them the dominant industry player because of your product or service? 

 

I know of a company http://www.internetbusinessseo.com that you might think of as a Search Engine Optimization company.  In reality, they decide who becomes the player in their industry because they determine who is ‘found’ on the Internet.  One of their customers is a roofing company.  If you look for roofing in a particular geography, you’ll find this client at the top of the search engines.

What does this mean for the client? Bottom line, more closed business.  

 

Internet Business SEO is a transformational company because their customers become industry leaders.  Who would you rather hire… a website developer who can give you a pretty website or someone who can deliver prospects to your business via the Internet?  Look over your suppliers and vendors.  Who among them have come to you with a compelling service to make your company the leading player in your industry? If you’re like most companies, the answer is ‘no one’. 

 

Can you pick a company and make them the dominant industry player by using your product or service?  If not, what changes or additions would you make to become the ‘king maker’?  When you’re the one that can ‘make or break’ your customers, you’re definitely not competing on price.  Even better, you get to choose who you want to work with, people who deserve to work with you.  Train your sales team to deliver this compelling message each time they meet with a prospect.  Sales becomes much, much easier.

 

Once you determine how you add compelling value to your customer – work on how your services make and create entire industries.  This allows you to achieve incredible and sustainable growth in your company regardless of the market trends because you’re irresistible.

 

Alan Hill is a business and executive coach in Minneapolis, Minnesota with ActionCOACH, the world’s number one business coaching company.  If you would like to learn more about him or to contact him for a private consultation, check out his website at http://actioncoach.com/alanhill  

 

MN CEO’s: Tired of IT Project Expenses?

Minnesota CEO’s –  change the employement game for your employees to bring more value

 

Problem: Frustrated, unappreciated technical talent that doesn’t understand their value.

Solution: Treat them like the talent they are, like top producing movie stars.

 

I believe that the troublemakers are the ones that bring opportunity.  Someone who’s frustrated in their work is frustrated because they believe it can and should be better – they just may not be able to express the desired change in a way that others are able to understand and act upon.  For example, I heard the story of a manager at Sun who many years ago complained to the owner that he was frustrated and leaving.  The owner asked exactly what he felt needed to change and received quite an earful.  The owner told him something to the effect of ‘looks like you have a big job to do implementing these changes, you’d better get busy’.  The owner knew how to change the frustration into action.

 

The story about the coming to a particularly ugly head of the bitter dispute between network admin Terry Childs and his managers (see http://www.cio.com/article/444526/Tech_Workers_Smoldering_Discontent), is about a frustrated employee and a supposed ‘incompetent boss’.  I believe the question is how to change the rules of employment so as to prevent frustration.  This is a similar situation in many ways to the labor movement in the US that created unions.  Employees felt they were being taken advantage of and so they unionized in order to create a better work environment for themselves.  Today technology workers are experiencing similar frustrations yet they reject the notion of unionizing, they perceive themselves as different from the ‘union mentality’.

 

Where then, is a workable solution to this quandary?  In the entertainment industry there are talent scouts – they ‘lock up’ the best talent by securing an exclusive representation agreement.  Interestingly enough, the way top talent is ‘sold’ is by reputation and by potential draw power, i.e. this star has a phenomenal box office draw and the movie will make you more than what you pay them.  Imagine bringing this model to the ‘frustrated tech industry’.  

 

If I were a recruiter I could package up a superstar team of the best database analyst, best web developer and the best Project Manager etc., pick a target company and ‘sell’ them.  The pitch is this team is able to get the job completed in ½ the time because they already have the experience and code components ready to go.  Now I’m selling the best solution economically, not just a body or a team.  Repeat this process for an entire IT shop – now IT workers are finally focused on delivering real hard dollar business benefits instead of chattering on and on about buying more IT hardware for no clear or understandable purpose.  They are finally able to show they are worth more than they are being paid. 

 

However, just like in the entertainment industry, if an entertainer doesn’t want to do the project then they don’t take the gig.   It’s up to the talent scouts to find the best replacement.  No more frustration for the IT worker, they pick the companies they want to work for. 

Smart IT talent would understand that the code they create is theirs to license out to their employer.  As they grow their experience they also grow their application base.  They can then offer reusable components and start selling those to other companies.  This would have to be negotiated, hence the value of the talent scout to the formerly frustrated IT worker. 

 

For example, a company may want to expand internationally.  They turn to their IT department managers and hear a bunch of IT speak on language conversions, database redundancy and security, etc.  The CEO turns to the talent scout who says ‘yes, I have a team that’s developed international applications and they have most of the application you need already designed and coded.  It will take them less than 3 months to deploy (one business quarter)”.  “Oh, yes, this team already works for you on contract but I own the rights to them and their code’.  Would you like me to have them move forward with this new project?”

 

Same thing for support teams.  Clearly identify how they are providing more value than they are charging in the form of their paycheck.  These people are now sold as an insurance policy against downtime.  Keep metrics on their downtime and return to service metrics – now when the discussion comes to ‘lets make support cheaper’ you have a value metric.  Team A has this downtime metric, Team B has another downtime metric. Cheaper equals this much more additional downtime risk.  Is your business ready to assume that additional risk?   It also gives a competition metric for the support team. How well do they stack up against global support?  What areas do they need to improve upon?  How much have they improved system uptime?  Is that trend increasing or decreasing? What about new systems, are they deployed faster and more stable? 

 

Compare this to the revenue this system brings in.  Now business owners and managers have a way to appropriately size support.  High revenue systems get high value support and less downtime risk.  Low revenue systems get low cost support and take on more downtime risk.

 

As these support teams create innovative support solutions, automated support tools and a knowledge base, these are owned by the team, not the company.  This would require a talent scout to negotiate on their behalf so that the value is retained by the team. 

 

Business owners would finally be able to quantify the value of their IT team and they’d be able to finally have an IT group focused on creating real business value.

 

Really smart companies would lock up the rights on their own talent before they ‘unionized’ by signing exclusive representation agreements with talent scouts.  Imagine your Human Resources team out there ‘locking up’ the rights to the top IT talent.  Not just hiring them but getting exclusive representation rights (yes, a contract). 

 

Bottom line, IT workers are not able to sell their value.  It’s why they need someone to negotiate on their behalf. 

 

Alan Hill is a business and executive coach in Minneapolis, Minnesota with ActionCOACH, the world’s number one business coaching company.  If you would like to learn more about him or to contact him for a private consultation, check out his website at http://actioncoach.com/alanhill