Today, between 17.30 and 19.00 (Central European time) we can watch solar system’s two largest planets (Jupiter and Saturn) side by side in night sky. It will be the closest ‘great conjunction’ since 1623 and it will be 2080 before the planets align so closely again.
The truth is a good enough story
It is well understood by the human resources community that engagement translates into profit. We have all seen or heard about people around us that have been dreadfully treated by business people, whether it’s #MeToo, exploitation or psychopathic bullying. I think that organisations’ who create an environment where their people can thrive and achieve will see increased profits, sales, greater customer experience, etc.
How can we help individuals and departments develop to match the future challenges your organisation will face? What motivates them to get excited about what isn’t yet known? Send me an e-mail and let’s arrange a physical or virtual meeting to discuss a workshop for your organisation.
Questions vs. Stories
My favourite part of sales is solving problems and maintaining relationships. You need to be able to formulate a conversation, you need to be intelligent and you need to be genuinely curious if you want to work in sales. I mean that you REALLY have to have a genuine curiosity to understand your clients, their needs and ultimately tie those needs to a solution.
You will need to be good at listening and asking the right questions if you want a career in sales. You will need to be good a storyteller and be coachable. As it’s the season of goodwill, I am offering a free 30 minute non-binding discovery consultation from today to the 30th December. Send me an e-mail to book your time.
Workshop idea & role play
“To inform is for free, the ‘how too’ requires a fee.” I have been using this quotation for almost 30 years. Anyway, here is a workshop idea based on an exercise from the wonderful “Kill The Company” book by Lisa Bodell.
Play the role of one of your top competitors for a day and see how if you switch perspectives you could figure out ways to kill your company metaphorically. When CEO’s speak about change and innovation they are usually asking the cliche questions, for example, “How do I think outside the box?” or “What’s the next big thing?” Cliche questions generate cliche answers.
Think about ways to eliminate and put your company out of business. Play the game and ask your executives to come up with ways to put your company out of business, then they by definition will be moving out of their current perspective or box, and look at it from the perspective of a competitor, who wants to destroy your company. Once you identify the threats, you then switch to the opposite perspective and return to being company executives and figure out ways to defend against those threats. You can also use this exercise in other contexts, e.g. “Why did I not get that job that I am applying for?” or “Why are people buying our competitors products?”
The answers may be simple! Maybe it’s because they see something that you are not seeing or because they believe something that you don’t believe. Perhaps this is because they are telling themselves a different story and you are not able to see that story if you are looking at the world from your own limited perspective. Kill the company is a great way of forcing yourself out of that perspective and into the perspective of someone else. This is better than a collective brainstorm session or being told to think outside of the box. Send me an e-mail and let’s arrange a physical or virtual meeting to discuss a workshop for your organisation.
Value based living
Growing up in London meant that were raised to be polite. Back in the days when we tripped on the pavement or kicked a stone, we apologised. Intelligence to me meant emotional intelligence, and I think that this is being able to have a conversation with any human being using common sense and being street smart.
I always wanted to experience success and significance. I wanted to fully understand about what I learned and more importantly acknowledged the understanding in the way that I actualised it in my life. I think that you have to prepare yourself to be extraordinary in what you do if you want to experience success and significance.
The old Chinese proverb says, “I hear, and I forget, I see, and I may remember, I do, and I understand.”
Learn together, stay together
Cultural and societal shifts over the past 9 months has seen a rise in working from home, a substantial increase in e-commerce and dependency on technology. This in turn has led to a change in the sales function for many companies.
Time - Safety - Meaning
I think that we can increase human psychological safety with training, insight and connection by taking root in moments of vulnerability. In my experience learners should be challenged to connect the learning to what matters to them as this is a reliable formula for creating self connection. Send me an e-mail to book a Zoom meeting.
I concur
“Thanks to the fundamental legacy my parents gave me, I’m always at home because I’m the same person no matter where I am. It’s that consistent definition of self which has allowed me to get through the tough times, when others were more than happy to try to define me according to their own prejudices. - Sidney Poitier ”
Detroit vs. Pepsi
Detroit in the State of Michigan came into my periphery as it was the home of Motown. Detroit is also known as the motor city - back in the days the Big Three car manufacturers (Chrysler, Ford and General Motors) had their headquarters there. Nowadays, it is the second poorest city in America and famous for D12 and Eminem. Well done to Pepsi for recognising the talent in the city.
Need I say more
Our choices reflect and determine who we are.
Plant the seed of hope
c/o Adobe stock photos
On this journey called life.
Take the good with the bad, the happy with the sad,
Appreciate what you have and let go of what you had,
Always forgive and never look back,
Things change,
Things go wrong but your path goes on.
Hope is not a strategy
I encourage my family, friends and colleagues to be good persons and not waste too much energy trying to prove it.
I encourage my family, friends and colleagues to go where they are appreciated and not where they are just tolerated.
I think our life purpose would be greatly enhanced when we know why we are getting up in the morning.
I encourage you to ask yourself these three questions everyday:
- Why are you working hard?
- Why do you want to succeed?
- Why do you want to win?
Purpose before profits
I recently bought my son a winter jacket and even after looking at Arc’teryx (my second favourite brand) and North Face, our unanimous choice was Patagonia. Patagonia is an heritage brand, famous for their outdoor climbing equipment.
Patagonia have a clear brand identity and knows exactly what they stand for - global sustainability - and they lead from the front. Action speaks louder than words and I always remembered that Yvon Chouinard (founder) said, “Every time we do the right thing, our profits go up.”
Discovery Process
I use the discovery phase to start the relationship and to understand what the customer needs and how I might (or might not) be able to help them. Here's how to run an EFFECTIVE discovery process in just 4 steps:
1) Learn their role and fit,
2) Learn their business milestones,
3) Learn their priorities to achieve those milestones,
4) Learn what they are doing today to get there
That’s the formula and every step starts with learning! Send me an e-mail and let’s arrange a physical or virtual meeting.
We are wired to look for coincidences
Illustration: Joanna Andreasson
I think that we human beings are storytelling machines, we notice things and we have to tell stories about them. For example, perhaps you thought of over 200 people yesterday and maybe one of them called you. I’m sure that in this case you would have paid attention to the coincidence and would not say to yourself that 199 people didn’t call me today. We are wired to look for coincidence, and as storytelling humans we are always looking for that correlation.
I can help
I continuously wonder when will we move away from the socialised metrics of success and embrace internal measures of success. As we create more and more wealth we will have to decide whether it is OK that this wealth is going into the hands of fewer and fewer people. The big question in the not too distant future will be, “Where will our status role models and social hierarchies come from? I do not think they will be the people who have made the most money. Send me an e-mail and let me know what you think.
One of the greatest physicists of the last century
“Never confuse education with intelligence. Intelligence isn’t the ability to remember and repeat, like they teach you in school.
Intelligence is the ability to learn from experience, solve problems and use our knowledge to adapt to new situations. - Professor Richard Feynman”
How do you do that?
I have always been a curious human being! Today, I thought about what it would be like if I were in your body right now.
How would I get frustrated?
What would I picture?
What would I say to myself?
How would I say it?
What tonality would I use?
Is art a cure for curiosity?
Is the purpose of our culture to enable capitalism or is the purpose of capitalism to enable culture? I would like to believe that it’s the latter, send me an e-mail and let me know what you think?
Simple ways to say you care
It is not everyone who wants to lead a deep and passionate life.
It is not everyone who wants to leave the world better for having passed this way.
If you do, here are some simple ways to say you care:
Is there anything I can do for you?
How can I support you?
Do you need my help?
I always have time for you...
You are really good at what you do...
Examining your weaknesses and making them your strength
“The truth may be puzzling. It may take some work to grapple with.
It may be counterintuitive. It may contradict deeply held prejudices.
It may not be consonant with what we desperately want to be true.
But our preferences do not determine what is true. - Carl Sagan
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