Accountability to each other really works

Rick Spence, Financial Post  Published: Tuesday, July 28, 2009

How do entrepreneurs learn from each other? And how do you get them to do the things they want to do, and need to do, but never seem to find time for?

Last week’s column focused on one answer to those questions: peer advisory boards. These are confidential forums in which owners of non-competitive businesses meet regularly through a trusted facilitator to share problems, explore solutions and encourage each other to keep going.

Last week, I told you how I was invited to sit in on the meeting of one such group, an Oakville, Ont., chapter of The Alternative Board, a Colorado-based group that manages peer boards across Canada and the United States. Although these meetings are strictly confidential, I was allowed to observe the process on behalf of the Financial Post as long as I didn’t name names.

The first hour involved basic leadership coaching and member updates. After that, things got serious. Facilitator John Womack (the only participant I’m allowed to name) asked his members what progress they had made in the business plans they’ve been working on for the past month.

Howard looks guilty: His plan called for a 10% sales increase for this year. So far, he’s been struggling just to stay even. He’s been working on introducing some new products, but the launch has been delayed. And he’s been meaning to work with his partners to complete a shareholder’s agreement, but no one has had time to sit down and get ‘er done.

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A lull in the economy presents an enormous opportunity to upgrade your Sales.  Each year, I speak each year with hundreds of Presidents, Business Owners and CEOs.  Rarely, if ever, do I hear from one that does NOT want to improve their Sales and Profitability.  Most owners agree that in order to do this, their organization must change the Sales Culture.  So, the question is not whether or not a leader WANTS Sales to improve.  The question is simply whether or not the leader DECIDES whether or not he/she will CHOOSE to COMMIT to making it happen.

Changing your Sales Culture includes several components.  It is simple to accomplish, but not easy.  Although it is possible to make incremental improvements in revenue without changing to possess a Sales Culture, business leaders who are serious about effecting lasting, consistent, and sustainable CHANGE must be prepared to undertake a larger and more intensive commitment.   This commitment starts at the top and must be transmitted throughout the ranks to the entire company, especially to the management team.  The commitment is a declaration to:

• Change the Results

• Change the Beliefs and paradigms of  the organization

• Change the Attitudes of the organization

• Change the Behaviors of Sales Managers and Salespeople

• Change the Techniques –  Begin with the Sales Management Process
  • Install a congruent, effective Sales Process
  • Install an effective Sales Recruiting Process

Finally, the leader must demand the adoption of a Consistent Vocabulary that will be supported by the entire organization.

Again, Culture Change is not easy, but it IS simple.   There are only five steps.  They are: 

CHOOSE to COMMIT to CHANGE 

EVALUATE YOUR SALES FORCE 

RAISE YOUR EXPECTATIONS 

RAISE THEIR EXPECTATIONS 

HOLD THEM ACCOUNTABLE

If you CHOOSE to COMMIT to implementing these steps,

Here’s what you can expect:

Most Employees and Managers will NOT embrace Change.  But as I mentioned earlier, the weak economy is your biggest asset here.  Employees are much more willing to change when things are not so rosy. 

If you are a business leader who does choose to commit to building predictability and sustainability into the fabric of your company by implementing LASTING change to the Results, Beliefs, Attitudes, Behaviors, and Techniques of your organization, be prepared for:

resistance from employees and managers (especially your weaker players)

plenty of hills and valleys

attempts at politics

a project that will take more than a few months

Also, be prepared for only a few leaders to emerge and for some turnover among the folks that insist on status quo. 

Choosing to commit to a program to upgrade your Sales Culture may seem like a daunting undertaking.   However, the benefits will be well worth the effort.

As the process progresses and begins to mature, be prepared for a team that welcomes accountability, behaves consistently and performs far better than your existing group.  

Copyright © Joe Zente 2009.  All Rights Reserved.

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This short, but profound series of thoughts were sent to me by Ben Collinsworth from Native Land Design.  Ben is someone who really walks the talk.  Spectacular results follow in his business and life.

Thanks for sharing, Ben…

Make Today Count

By: John Maxwell

You will never change your life until you change something you do daily.  You can make everyday of your masterpiece. 

• Good decisions – Daily discipline = a plan without a payoff
• Daily discipline – Good decisions = regimentation without reward
• Good decisions + daily discipline = a masterpiece of potential

Happiness is something you decide upon ahead of time.  It is how we have to arrange our minds. 

John Wooden said, “Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the ways that turn out.”

It is important to spend 80% of our time in our area of strength. 

Three key questions that we need to answer:

1. What is required of me?
2. What gives me the greatest return?
3. What gives me the greatest reward?

By answering these questions you will be able to bring priorities into focus.

Amy Vanderbilt said, “When we learn to give thanks, we are learning to concentrate not on bad things, but on good things in our lives.”

One third of the people in America have a schedule and only 9% of people actually work the schedule that has been planned.

It is hard to find motivation in the moment when there is no hope in the future.  A sense of purpose helps a person to make a decision to change and then to follow through with the discipline required to make the change permanent. 

Focused thinking – removing the distractions and clutter from our minds.  Creative thinking is the ability to break out of our box and limitations to explore new ideas.  Possibility thinking is all about unleashing enthusiasm.  Reflective thinking is the ability to revisit the past in order to gain a true perspective and think with understanding.

Spend time with good thinkers and you will see how this exposure sharpens your thinking.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow said, “The heights by great men reached and kept were not attained by sudden flight, but they, while their companions slept, were toiling upward in the night.”

True leadership starts with the heart.  It is not to act differently, but to become different.  Not to ask honestly, but to become an honest person.  It will become the core of who you are and how you lead.  People desire a better tomorrow so show them hope.  People need to be understood so listen to them.  People have a tendency to get low so we need to encourage them. 

Commit yourself to adding value to others.  This can only happen by treating everyone with respect. 

• Look for ability in others
• Help others discover their ability
• Help others develop their ability

Benjamin Franklin started his day by saying, “What good will I do today?”  Then he ended each day by asking “What good did I do today?”

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Financial Times

By: Andrew Bounds

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