management

Managerial experience

The higher up you are in an organisation, the more important vision and creativity become, but you still must have the skills required to manage and lead well. Some young entrepreneurs start with the vision and creativity and then develop their management skills as they scale their companies; others start with management skills and develop their creative vision as they climb up the ladder. Just like great musicians, all great managers have both creativity and technical skills. And no manager at any level can expect to succeed without the skill set of an organisational engineer.

“Knowledge is having the right answers. Intelligence is asking the right questions. Wisdom is knowing when to ask the right questions.”
— Professor Richard Feynman

We deserve your money

The majority of management is about rational planning of things that are entirely in their control. The obsession with planning, quantification and rationalisation arguments means that we are automatically constrained to doing those things which makes sense in advance. It’s not safe to assume that the incentives and interests of individual employees are necessarily well aligned with the interests of the organisation. I think in reality, what your business depends on are citizens whose behaviour can only be influenced obliquely, they can’t be controlled - in other words you can’t tell your customers what to buy.


Self reflection

According to Indeed business leadership refers to how individuals make decisions, set goals, and provide direction in a professional environment. Business leadership can take many different forms, but usually involves a CEO or higher-level employees guiding and inspiring the rest of the team. I have an in-depth knowledge and understanding of the core elements of business leadership and I think the essential business management skills should include:

  • Critical and strategic thinking

  • Communication

  • Problem-solving

  • Organisation

  • Presenting

  • Reporting

  • Leadership

  • Project management


I trust science

In general, scientists are motivated in their work by curiosity about the world and how it works. Behavioural science is the branch of science that deals primarily with human interaction and has a fundamental connection to sales, as salespersons ask a lot of questions, experiment and interact with buyers. 


Contact me via e-mail for a peer review of your sales process. I think that sales professionals who understand the core concepts of behavioural science are better able to engage their customers because they have:

  • Increased self-awareness

  • Improved emotional intelligence

  • Improved agility

  • Reduced social anxiety

  • Reduced fear in managing difficult conversations

  • Improved ability to assess challenges and opportunities objectively


More feedback required

How do you start a feedback loop?
- Plan (choose an action)
- Execute (perform the action)
- Monitor (observe the reaction)
- Analyse (measure the reaction)


Touch points are interactions between businesses and customers that occur during the customer’s journey. These moments significantly influence customer experience as well as brand perception. A good customer journey is when we include everyone who’s involved in a touch point - customers, the people who influence them and those they influence. In order to start a feedback loop, you will need to add another layer to the journey - who, on our brand’s side, holds responsibility for each step and what constitutes a handoff to the next group. These teams need to provide feedback at each step so everyone along the customer journey understands the bigger impact of their work.


Working from home

Working from home is not a new phenomenon but due to the Covid-19 pandemic it has become the new normal for most employees. It’s more than likely that many of you have been or will be working remotely for the foreseeable future, so it’s imperative to distinguish between private and professional life at home. As employees are the key drivers for all businesses, companies, and organisations, hopefully your boss sent you home with more than just your laptop. 

 

In a remote working model, autonomy, mastery and purpose will help leaders to replace control with empowered self-control. Leaders and managers should focus on empowering and motivating their teams by establishing clear goals and boundaries for each member of their team and allow them freedom to operate within these boundaries. I think leaders and managers should concede control and enhance motivation by trusting employees to work in ways that suits them best.


Each buyer is unique

Success in sales depends largely on the salesperson’s ability to adapt his or her skills and pitch when selling to different personality types. With just a little bit of communication, observation, and research, you can use your knowledge of these decision-making styles to build better and longer lasting customer relationships and increase your close rate.

 

What are those personality types? 

The four types of buyers whom I have met the most during my sales career are as follows: management, user, technical and economic buyers. I use the acronym M.U.T.E
- The management buyer is all about seeing the actual solution being implemented and how your solutions can be used.
- The user buyer is the person who is concerned with the overall customer experience and the impact of the buying experience and ease of purchase.
- The technical buyer relies heavily on measurable and quantifiable data before engaging in a purchase and wants proof that your product or service performs as stated.
- The economic buyer is focused on the ROI and stay within or under budget, this type of buyer takes into consideration examples of work done for past and current clients and seeks case studies that prove the ROI of a solution. 

 

By identifying your buyer’s personality type and what motivates them, you can tailor your sales presentation to meets their needs. I can teach you how to put all of these four types of buyers on a grid and figure why they would buy, and more importantly document the reasons why they are holding back from buying. Contact me via e-mail and I’ll guide you through the process of addressing those reasons for not buying and fine tuning your sales presentation.


Invite input from others

How can teams communicate more effectively?
To maintain the team spirit is probably the most challenging issue for managers and leaders in organisations today, putting the “we” before the “me”. I think that it’s not about individuals, it’s all about the collective and team members should be encouraged to share relevant information and ask clarifying questions. Emotional intelligence (EQ) is the ability to understand, use, and manage your own emotions in positive ways to relieve stress, communicate effectively, empathise with others, overcome challenges, and defuse conflict. This is a skill that improves communication and with practice most people can learn to become better communicators.

How can you create a non-negotiable passion within your team?
I think in order to maximise teamwork, it's important that all teammates share the same goals and are committed to an overall vision. Communication is essential to ensure that a team runs optimally, and ineffective communication can derail an entire project. Bruce Tuckman stated that teams go through four stages of development - forming, storming, norming and performing - this is a useful framework for looking at your own team. In my experience, diverse teams with are more effective than less emotionally savvy teams and EQ skills can help teams navigate conflict, evenly divide work, and develop long-term trust.

 

What happens when teams interact virtually? 
Individual members of any team can help the team do better whether virtually or in person. Managers and leaders should encourage team members to communicate with one other and ensure that every team member participates in the discussion. In an ideal scenario, every team member would be encouraged to share their ideas and updates on progress - even if the news is bad - and other members would do their best to listen, evaluate without judgment, and offer a thoughtful response. 


Do you have the necessary time, focus, and energy for training and workshops? If so, contact me via e-mail.


Make promises that you can keep

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I think that not promising things you can’t deliver is smart, it makes more sense to be realistic and modest. In my experience, I have found that delivering what you say you are going to deliver impacts your personal credibility. In general, people respect people that do what they say they are going to do, so setting reasonable expectations is a great skill to develop. If you are consistently late on deadlines and not achieving what you have promised, customers will become suspicious. What systems and processes do your organisation have in place to manage expectations?


I think that keeping your word, should be on top of your list! The post pandemic world is really uncertain, so if you can under promise and over deliver, you will not only keep your customers satisfied; you will keep your customers from taking their business elsewhere. One way to know how to overdeliver to your customers and gain valuable insights is to simply ask your customers what they want. Contact me via via e-mail for customer experience training and workshops.


The language of successful managers

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When I look back at the number or courses I have attended where there has been a lot of smiling and nodding. I often wonder about how many people then go back to their organisations and continue doing what they think works. Managerment who continue to only look at the numbers, seeing the agents/distributors as tools rather than members of the team.


The language that successful managers use:

  1. How can I help?

  2. What do you think?

  3. Your work matters

  4. I trust you and our team

  5. I appreciate your commitment

  6. Thank you for working hard

  7. I was wrong, I am sorry

  8. Your career path is my priority

  9. Do you have the tools to succeed?


Old dog...new tricks!

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In my early days of leadership, people centric thinking was not part of my business plan. I was a nice guy, I had a positive attitude but I wouldn’t say to you that I was sensitive to the impact of my initiatives on people. It was all about numbers and building shareholder value, not human value. My early days were very traditional, if I had to fire people - I just did it. I mean, that’s what you do in business! Unfortunately, that conventional thought still exists today, it’s not human, it’s just all about numbers.

I think the major problem with business leadership today is that there is no leadership; there’s a lot of management. It’s a very short-term attitude to just think about people as a resource that you pay and expect them to do their work. What will you lose if you take it from a human perspective? In reality we are responsible for the lives of human beings. And if you want to be cold-hearted about it, people who like coming to work are even more productive. People who feel safe and can trust the people they work with are more likely to offer bigger ideas, take better risks, be more innovative and more productive. That’s a whole host of good business reasons. When you are ready to look at your employees from a human perspective, just contact me via e-mail to arrange a confidential meeting.