All behavior is made up of the following three components: 

• What we do
• What we think
• What we feel

Did you ever notice that doing and thinking are always expressed as verbs, like “exercising” or “considering”, but that feelings are typically expressed as adjectives, like “frustrated’ or nouns, like “depression”.

Most of us believe that we choose our actions.  Some believe that we choose our thoughts.  Surprisingly few people believe that we choose our feelings.

A couple questions to consider:

1. Do feelings happen to us, or do we choose them?

2. Can using better words (in our self-talk) positively affect our behavior (and ultimately our level of success and happiness)?

A feeling is a response to a stimulus.  If we are responsible (response-able) human beings, one can argue that we should each be able to always choose our responses.  For most people, managing their feelings is tougher than it sounds.

In fact, choosing our feelings is tougher than choosing our actions, but we can control them if we know how.   How we act directly affects how we think, which directly affects how we feel.  So if we want feel better, start by acting in way that makes us feel better.     

Additionally, we can dramatically affect how we act, think and feel by using empowering conversation with ourselves.  We all talk to ourselves all day long (both consciously and sub-consciously).  So why not make our conversation a positive one?

If you are unusually busy, are you “overwhelmed” or “in-demand”?

The next time something or someone “makes you angry”, would your behavior improve if you told yourself you were “angering”?   

Would you act or feel differently if you were “frustrating” over a situation rather than being “frustrated” by a situation?

In each the examples above, the former conversation is that of a slave (someone who is response-unable).  The latter self-talk is one of someone in control of his/her thoughts and feelings.

The conversation that you have with yourself is the most important conversation that you will have today (and every other day).  Begin to pay attention to your self-talk.  Replace all the slave-talk with power-talk and pay attention to the effect this new conversation has on your behavior.

Copyright ©   Joe Zente  2010.   All Rights Reserved.

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We all affect people.  So why not affect them positively?  Here are some time-tested methods to make a profound difference, all of which will make you a lot more interesting and attractive to others (and to yourself).

BE A LISTENER:  Sounds obvious, doesn’t it?  Most people know active listening is important.  So ask yourself.  “Am I the type of person that listens, or am I the type that waits to talk?”

How should you listen?   Pay attention not only to words, but also to tonality and body language.  Raise your antennae for special gifts, traits or talents.  Then point them out.  Most people listen for what they need from the other person.  Shift your listening for what’s truly unique or special about the person with whom you are speaking.  Then point it out.  Try it for a day.  Then a week.  What would result if you adopted this way of listening for the rest of your life?

Do you listen for emotions?  How would you rate your level of empathy and sincerity?  Facts, data and information are valuable, but people, relationships, and emotions are profound.  Next time you’re listening to your child, friend, prospect or customer, feel what they are feeling and respond with empathy versus intellect.  

BE EMPOWERING:   Unique gifts and problems occur differently to everyone, so show others how to make better use of what they already possess.  It all lives in perception.  Your perspective can help others create a wonderful experience that they previously didn’t know existed.  Most people are so mired in the future or past, that they miss out on the opportunities staring straight at them in the present.  Be their eyes and ears and help them see the value of what’s already all around them.  

Provide people with ideas that can be easily retained and transmitted.  Learn to communicate information, truths and concepts in bite-sized packages.  Make these packages easy to understand and share.  In short, try to be concise and provide simple, worthwhile, interesting things to say.

BE HUMAN:   None of us behaves perfectly, so be vulnerable and acknowledge your weaknesses.  It is such an adult thing to do.  Being fully accepting of your whole person, including the faults is liberating for you and others.  Showing humility permits others to also feel comfortable in being not-perfect.   Use your human qualities of caring and nurturing so you can really get down to the business of truly helping others.

BE INQUISITIVE:   Create new worlds in people’s thinking, feeling and priorities.  Don’t be afraid to challenge a strongly-held belief or assumption or create a new paradigm or distinction.  Spread your tough-love generously, but always offer a soft (and strong) place to land. 

BE PERCEPTIVE:  And notice the good stuff.  Acknowledgement of accomplishment is fine, but praising people for who they are instead what they did is profound.

Focus on the person behind the accomplishment or problem.  Helping a person get more in touch with who they are and what they really care about will always help them produce better results in everything they do.

BE SHARING:   Offer people meaningful and interesting concepts, projects and tools.  If the popularity of Reality TV is any indication, most people must be pretty bored.  If you happen to be up to something worthwhile and are willing to let people share in your project, many people will gain meaning from joining you.  Not only from playing, learning and participating, but also by the game itself and the interesting people they’ll meet along the way.  So if you’re working on a cool project, share it and affect a bunch of other people.

BE REAL:   Don’t try to profoundly affect others.  For some reason, this is harder than it sounds for many people.  Sincere Interest and Infinite Curiosity rule the day.  The objective here is not to try to affect others.  Acting sincere or pretending to be interested are oxymoronic.  They will get you nowhere — fast.   However, what you can do is be trustworthy and caring for others and share the stuff above with those who want to receive it.  

If you do, you WILL have a profound effect on others and on yourself.  I know—all this sounds like a pile of new communication skills to learn.  If you go for it, there will be some adjusting.  But, this shouldn’t feel like work.  It is fun and rewarding to EVERYONE involved.  It takes no extra time or preparation.  All it really takes is a simple commitment to begin to make a bigger difference in people’s lives.

Copyright ©   Joe Zente  2010.   All Rights Reserved.

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Below is an excellent summary of how upcoming healthcare legislation can affect your business:

Quick Tip Video from Richards Rodriguez & Skeith LLP

Most of us have heard of the 80/20 Rule.  Few of us have considered its practical use.

Test the following examples of the 80/20 Rules as they apply to Your Business: 

*80% of our business comes from 20% of our Customers.

*80% of our revenue comes from 20% of our products or services.

*80% of complaints come from 20% of our Customers.

*80% of our internal HR issues stem from 20% of our employees.

*80% of our sales are generated by 20% of our salespeople.

Sound about right???

It is important for entrepreneurs and executives to develop a clear understanding of their 20% areas.  It is also vital that they help their employees define the areas in each of their respective departments. 

These areas, your RESULT DOMAINS are where performance resides.

Result Domains are those areas where your greatest attention is required.  Focusing upon them with efficiency can lead to dramatic results.   The majority of your organization’s time and resources should be allocated to these areas.

Accountability metrics should be derived and driven around Result Domains.

Focus on your 20% areas and watch your business grow.

Copyright ©   Joe Zente  2010.   All Rights Reserved.

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Just about every day, I meet business owners, leaders and managers who refuse to accept mediocrity in their Operations, Product Quality, Distribution or Customer Service.  Interestingly, those same leaders ARE willing and consistently accept mediocrity in their Sales Force, resulting in millions of dollars of lost revenue and profit.  Sound familiar?  While this assertion may seem incredible, it is unfortunately the rule and not the exception.  The good news is that this phenomenon can be reversed.    

If you would like to eliminate under-achievement from your Sales Force and transform it from Good to Great, all it takes is a DECISION and a COMMITMENT.  The rest is formulaic.

So what is it about some salespeople, teams and companies that cause them to win while others fizzle?  Here are the ten biggest differences between Sales Winners (over achievers) and Sales Losers (under achievers). 

1.  Choice - Over achievers consistently choose to do the things they don’t like to do.  Weak players postpone or avoid them entirely.

2.  Strategy - Winners develop specific strategies for both long-term and near-term success and for the accounts they seek to obtain or grow.  Weaker salespeople spend little or no time strategizing.  A solid strategy is required for effective execution.  In the absence of a strategy, execution is a hope, not a reality.

3.  UnConditional Commitment - Over achieving salespeople use Selling Time to Sell.  Period.  They have a Success Recipe and let nothing stand in the way of executing the required activities necessary to succeed.  A winner who commits to making 25 calls in a given day will make them and not allow distractions and excuses like “I had to do more research”, “my computer locked up”, “my boss needed that report” or “the dog ate my homework” to prevent them from executing their committed activities.  

4.  Mental Toughness - When over-achievers lose a battle or experience a curve ball during a sales interview or cycle, they simply get back on their horse and strategize as to how their next call will achieve the desired result.  When under-achievers lose a battle they often retreat, sulk, complain, give up, call someone who will be more accepting or kind, surf the internet, play solitaire or do nothing.

5.  Expectations - Over achievers expect to win.  Under achievers expect to just play.  Expectations are even more important than goals.  While goals provide long-term motivation, expectations set the bar for each and every interaction and meeting, as well as for the behaviors we might expect from ourselves, associates, prospects and Customers.

6.  Reaction to Adversity – Adversity exists and no one is exempted.  The only difference is in the reaction.  Winners always see a challenge or opportunity where weak players see obstacles.  Over achievers embrace challenges and even get excited about them. Under achievers become overwhelmed with challenges.  They attempt to avoid obstacles, including “tough” conversations.  

7.  Emotional Control -  When winners fail to get the desired result, they will not self-pity, lose control, find a comfort zone or become upset.  They will simply stay in the moment and make their next move.  When weaker players fail to get desired results they panic, become emotionally involved, become defensive and lose their objectivity.

8.  Process - Over achievers “own” a process that they know is effective that keeps them effective, focused and efficient.  They know how to maintain control of all selling interviews.  They will execute it independent of the size or scope of the opportunity.  Under achievers typically allow prospects to control the conversations and process and their results show it.

9.  Self-Improvement – Winners consistently over achieve because they are relentless in their pursuit of improvement and refining their skills via reading, webinars, training, coaching and practice.  Under achievers don’t necessarily see value in improving or practicing.  Winners don’t just accumulate knowledge, they put it into action.  Many weak players think they are “good enough”.  Winners create a recurrent Development Plan and commit to continuous improvement.

10.  Passion - Over achievers are passionate about their job and profession.  They love what they do.  Under achievers typically can’t wait to finish their day and go home.

If you would like to rate your Salespeople, be objective and use the following ratings.

1 -  Poor  
2 -  Needs Significant Improvement   
3 -  Room for Improvement   
4 -  Needs Some Fine Tuning  
5 -  Congratulations, No Need for Improvement

It would be a good idea to ask each of your people to rate themselves as well, so you can compare results and develop a plan accordingly.

Compare your results according to this scale:

A Players:                   40-50
B Players:                   30-39
C Players:                   20-29
Emergency:                Under 20                

Any surprises?

Any lessons learned?

Now that you know what you have, will you be making any changes?

Please share what you’ve learned

Continued Success! 

Z3 Performance Development, Inc.

Austin, Texas  78750

www.zthree.com