2 Things We Cannot Teach Employees: Judgment and Personality Development

2 Things We Cannot Teach Employees: Judgment and Personality Development
Copyright © 2008 Ed Bagley

We can teach people a lot of things, but there are two
things we cannot teach people, potential hires or
employees—judgment and personality development.

Judgment is an interesting trait because the only way you
can acquire judgment is by making judgments. Unfortunately,
in the reality of life, some people simply have better
judgment than others.

If you think the bank and financial lenders at the biggest
companies in the United States always have good judgment,
you are dead wrong. Their judgment can be terrible. Look at
the recent subprime lending that was fueled by greed rather
than good judgment. Just because the CEO of a company makes
more judgments (or decisions), it does not mean that he or
she makes good judgments (or decisions). People either have
good judgment or they DO NOT, just as you are pregnant or
not pregnant; there is no in-between.

Remember, too, that there can be a huge difference between
having good judgment and being judgmental. Sometimes it is
hard to forget your past. People can be judgmental about
someone else's ideas or opinions when their credibility is
not on the line, but change like a chameleon when THEY are
responsible for making a judgment.

Personality development cannot be taught because it is not
driven by professional development (adding more college
degrees, specialized training, seminars or one-on-one
help). Personality development is driven not by
professional growth but by personal growth.

This is why it is so difficult to take a bigoted person and
change his or her attitude about racial issues. A bigoted
man may well be as prejudiced on the day he dies as the day
he decided to look down on someone or question their
ability because of the color of their skin.

Personal growth is 100 times more difficult to achieve than
professional growth because it requires that you not only
learn or become aware of new information, but that you also
willingly change your thought process and belief system.
People CAN change but most people choose not to.

A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion
still. A woman convinced against her will is of the same
opinion still.

The next two sentences are very important to know and
understand: When we blame others, we give up our ability to
change. If you lack the will for change, there is no one
who can show you the way (that includes Jesus Christ
himself).

You will rise higher faster by achieving more personal
growth than professional growth. Many potential hires and
employees have enough education to become successful. Many
can also handle any necessary training required to become
successful. Few, however, manage to achieve more personal
growth than professional growth and remain stuck in their
current position.

----------------------------------------------------
Read my 4-part series on Job Interviews: "It Is Not What
You Say, But How You Say It That Counts ' Part 1", "How to
Answer When Asked Your Strengths and Weaknesses ' Part 2",
"How to Handle Job References ' Part 3" and "What Do
Employers Really Want When Hiring? ' Part 4".
Find my Blog at:
http://www.edbagleyblog.com
http://www.edbagleyblog.com/JobsandCareers.html

A High Payoff Tip That Expands Your Chances of Success

A High Payoff Tip That Expands Your Chances of Success
Are your decisions indecisive and your solutions long in
coming?

Grab a piece of paper and write down your top 10 issues
that still are unresolved, undecided, unmoving. (Go ahead.
Hit the 'pause' button and do it now - I'll wait for you.)

I had a meeting with a successful professional this month
who was stalled. She has a fabulous new business idea that
could revolutionize the driving habits of young drivers and
the costs of insurance for their parents. And she wasn't
making progress.

As we spoke about her thinking and the actions she'd taken,
it was clear that she'd become stuck in her approach. Stuck
with a particular point of view about how best to proceed.
Stuck with her 'knowing' based on many years experience in
the industry.

And yet, that 'knowing' is a two-edged sword. She's not
alone. I often find for myself and my clients that the root
of our becoming 'stalled' lies in our fixation on how we're
approaching the situation. We're certain that we know the
question and all the factors we're supposed to take into
consideration. Often we've written off the alternative
ideas without actually considering them.

We give the available options no attention at all.

And then no progress is made. No decision is made. No plan
of action is designed or implemented.

On the one hand my client knows exactly to who contact
throughout the industry to explore the idea. On the other
hand, she had passed over the rather long list of
alternative entry points for her idea and ended up
immobilized when her contacts didn't move forward with her
proposal.

Our life experience and our training and expertise often
box us in and prevent us from seeing the many other ideas
and solutions that are available. So here is one of the
simplest and most powerful techniques you can use to expand
your attention and expand your options in a similar
situation. The technique is called the

REFRAME ' Change Your Frame of Reference

Add a new person with a different background to the
conversation.

A new mind, with other experiences and expertise, often
helps create the shift that will enable you to reach a
decision.

The less similar the new mind you bring to the
conversation, the quicker you'll see the assumptions you've
been making that have been preventing you from seeing the
alternatives you could pursue.

When my clients use me, they know they'll get new
perspectives as you'll see later. When a fresh additional
person is not available, I find that the following
technique works for most of my clients to get them shifting
their references.

For my client, this version of the Reframe Technique came
up with more than six distinct new approaches she could
pursue. Every single one of them was as viable as the idea
she'd been stuck on. One was to change from using the
insurance industry as the entry point for her proposal to
the parents themselves.

Parents could be approached individually and in their local
organizations. Since the idea is of economic benefit to
them as well as to the insurance companies at large, there
might be quicker receptivity to the idea and quicker action
on testing her idea.

There were more High Payoff ideas that came from our
meeting, but I'll save those for you to discover in the
mailer you get from your insurance company in years to come.

So grab the Reframe Technique and apply it to something on
that list you wrote out, and let's get it moving again so
you can boost your productivity this week.

----------------------------------------------------
© 2008 Linda Feinholz Management expert, consultant,
and coach Linda Feinholz is "Your High Payoff Catalyst" If
you're ready to focus on your High Payoff activities, boost
your professional and personal results and have more fun,
get her FREE audio mini-course "7 Quick & Simple Steps to
Increase Your Focus, Ease Your Effort & Accelerate Your
Results" and the free weekly newsletter The Spark! Visit
http://www.YourHighPayoffCatalyst.com

How To Set Marketing Goals That Produce Results

How To Set Marketing Goals That Produce Results
There's an old saying that goes "if you fail to plan, you
plan to fail." That saying is certainly true in the
marketing world. There are many people who want to make a
lot of money from their business. However, many of those
same people don't even take the time to set marketing goals
that will help them to produce the results that they want
to achieve.

Setting goals is very important in life overall, but it is
even more important when it comes down to marketing your
products and services. If you don't set a baseline as far
as where you want to be and what you identify as success in
your business, you are building your business in a very
haphazard fashion.

Why is setting goals important?

Let me ask you a question.

If you wanted to take a road trip from New York to
California, what is the first thing that you would do?
Wouldn't you decide WHERE in California you want your final
destination to be? What if you never decided on a final
destination in California? You could wind up anywhere in
the entire state. What if you never even decided on
California being your final destination? You might end up
in Texas, Florida or even in Mexico!

The same applies for your business. If you don't take the
time out to set marketing goals that produce results, you
might wind up anywhere in your business.

So how do you set goals and practice goal setting when it
comes down to the marketing of your business?

The first thing that you want to do is set your final
destination for your business. If your goal is to build a
successful business, what do you define as success exactly?
Perhaps success to you might be to make an extra $500 a
month from your business to help out with your car payment?
Maybe you might want to make $2500 a month from your
business so you can quit your job? Success could be
building a six figure income from your business? Maybe you
might even want to build a multi-million or even a
multi-billion dollar business and take your company public?
Whatever you define as success for your business, you want
to write it down.

Once you have your final destination in place, the next
thing that you want to do is set milestones along the path.
Using the road trip example, you're probably not going to
drive straight to California from New York. There is a
good chance that you are going to make stops along the
journey. The same goes for your business. You need to set
smaller milestones along the way so that you can clearly
see that you are on track towards meeting your goal.

Finally, you want to identify marketing strategies and
techniques that can help you to reach the milestones that
you have established. These marketing strategies and
techniques are going to be the tasks that you are going to
implement to drive and convert prospects into customers for
your business. The customers provide the money for your
business and the money helps you to meet the milestones and
goals that you have established.

By taking the time out to set marketing goals and implement
goal setting in your business, you are building your
business on a sound foundation and dramatically increasing
the likelihood of reaching what you define as success in
your business.

----------------------------------------------------
Mark Garland is the owner of AnalyzedMarketing.com, and is
dedicated to helping others successfully market their
products and services. He recently released
http://www.analyzedmarketing.com/business_area , which
helps websites and small businesses establish a successful
online presence.

Profitable Strategic Partnerships

Profitable Strategic Partnerships
The longest lasting and profitable strategic partnerships
are those in which each company brings something to the
table that the other company lacks. There are certain
situations in which it simply makes sense to form a
strategic partnership. For instance:

- Partner when one business lacks wide access to the
market, and the other partner has a large customer base or
access to the market, but needs more products or services
to bring to its customers. A great example of this is the
partnership between IBM and Microsoft. Microsoft offered a
great product, but had no market reach; IBM had reach, but
needed the innovative software that Microsoft had created.

- Partner when one business is highly specialized or has a
strong niche skill. Large businesses often outsource to
smaller businesses that specialize in certain areas.

- Partner when trying to break into a new market, while
keeping costs contained. - Partner in government
contracting situations in order to win the contract. A
larger company may partner with a smaller enterprise in
order to qualify for certain contracts that are reserved
for minority-owned businesses or small businesses.
Sometimes the smaller company will need the resources of
the larger business in order to adequately fulfill the
government contract requirements.

Also, consider partnerships when there is a need to get to
the market rapidly. By focusing on your core competencies,
weighing the option of creating a product or service versus
finding someone who already offers the same thing, and
thinking win-win, you can bring a potential opportunity for
partnership to a company with whom you would like to work.
Keep in mind that you need to think about how all the
parties in a partnership benefit, not just your company.
If you are only out for yourself, your partnership will
fail.

A strategic partnership can also take the form of finding
profit by cutting costs. For instance, two small
businesses might find a way to reduce rent by sharing space
in a warehouse or office complex. Or perhaps you can share
the cost of a database subscription or business group
membership with a strategic partner to help you both defray
the costs. Small businesses can also lease space from
larger businesses. One woman runs her small coffee shop
out of a local gas station. Her lease monies were more than
the retail profits that were being generated by the few
items that were selling in the space. She had a steady
stream of clientele. Both businesses found the arrangement
profitable.

Think ahead when looking to develop profitable strategic
partnerships. You can look to increase market share. You
can reduce costs and keep more money in your pocket. You
can partner with large or small firms. Whatever you decide,
it's in your best interest to keep your potential partner's
best interest first and foremost in your mind's eye. By
thinking ahead, and seeing the world of opportunity, you'll
be able to develop partnerships that create a better
business environment for everyone involved.

----------------------------------------------------
Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A strategic
Collaboration Marketing consulting firm. He empowers
business owners to discover how to implement Integration,
Alliance, and Joint Ventures marketing tactics to solve
their specific business challenges. He demonstrates how you
can create your own Collaboration Marketing Strategy to
increase your new sales, conversation rates, and repeat
business. He can be reached at christian@christianfea.com -
http://www.christianfea.com

A Process to Continually Improve Your Business Model

A Process to Continually Improve Your Business Model
Continuing business model innovation is the most valuable
activity that any enterprise an engage in. But it's a
problem for most leaders to take on this task. Why? They've
never see anyone do it, and they have no personal
experience.

To help overcome that problem, this article describes the
key elements that such a process requires. With this
template in mind, some leaders will be able to design and
engage in the appropriate activities.

Here are the four elements in continuing business model
innovation:

1. Understand and follow the current business model well.
-- Employ the optimum way that goods and services should be
supplied now, by informing all stakeholders about what
needs to be done to deliver the most benefits.

2. Understand and install the next business model. --
Specify the next innovation to provide more stakeholder
benefits through goods and services and how the transition
will occur.

3. Understand and use a business model innovation vision.
-- The ideal benefits to deliver to stakeholders in your
industry, which is used to test the appropriateness of
developing future generations of potential business model
innovations.

4. Ongoing design and testing of business model
innovations. -- Vision-defined probes and tests to elicit
reactions to providing new benefits and various ways of
supplying them.

A more valuable approach to continuing business model
innovation also describes more than one future generation
of innovations in terms of the second element.

For each of the first three elements of continuing business
model innovations, you need to identify seven key elements
-- the who, what, when, where, why, how, and how much --
viewed from the perspective of all direct and indirect
stakeholders. Their combination defines either a business
model or a business model innovation vision:

1. "Who?" defines all the stakeholders you are serving or
affecting.

2. "What?" describes the offerings and their benefits and
negative influences that affect each stakeholder.

3. "When?" captures the timing of offerings' effects on
stakeholders.

4. "Where?" identifies the location for delivering the
benefits and other impacts.

5. "Why?" gives the rationale for providing the stakeholder
benefits you deliver.

6. "How?" explains your method of providing your offerings
and being compensated for them.

7. "How much?" states the price customers and users pay and
incur.

Why is it important to know what these seven elements are?
By examining these areas, organizations will be able to
focus on places where important benefits may be added.

Copyright 2008 Donald W. Mitchell, All Rights Reserved

----------------------------------------------------
Donald Mitchell is chairman of Mitchell and Company, a
strategy and financial consulting firm in Weston, MA. He is
coauthor of seven books including Adventures of an
Optimist, The Irresistible Growth Enterprise, and The
Ultimate Competitive Advantage. You can find free tips for
accomplishing 20 times more by registering at:
====> http://www.2000percentsolution.com .

Turning managers into coaches - the challenges!

Turning managers into coaches - the challenges!
As a trainer, turning managers into coaches is a real
challenge. We'd probably all like to think that all
managers can become coaches - but can they?

There are perhaps three reasons why it is extremely
difficult for managers to become coaches:

- Managers are time bound. Results have to be achieved to
a certain standard within a certain time. Coaching takes
time.

- Managers are performance oriented. They have been
charged with getting results. Often the employee's
potential problem to be addressed through coaching, may not
seem to relate to improved results.

- Managers often have a personal style that is more
directive than consultative. It is thus hard to switch
gears from telling and selling to listening and supporting.

1. Manager are time bound.

After training managers with effective coaching skills, I
often get the comment "Gee, that takes time. Wouldn't it
be easier to just give them a suggestion of what they
should do?".

Managers need to experience "being coached" and solving a
real problem of their own, to be sold on the benefits of
spending time coaching. Only training that provides an
opportunity for managers to personally experience the
benefits of coaching, can sell them on the need to spend
time coaching.

2. Managers are performance oriented.

Andrew Mayo's excellent recent article "Everybody wants to
be a coach" addressed the need to link coaching to
performance and the organisation's strategic intent, very
well. Andrew made the point that if coaching is to be
successful (and linked to achieving performance goals as
well as personal development), then it is essential to
ensure the manager passes authority for solving the issue
to the direct report. Managers can see the logic in this,
but can they change their natural behaviour?

Having worked with managers for a number of years who are
well intentioned to coach their people, they still find
this a difficult concept to grasp in practice. So much so,
that often the coaching session becomes a performance
counseling session and therefore does not always gain the
commitment of the direct report. The payoff however in
mastering this challenge, is to see the direct report take
real ownership for their development knowing that the
manager was the catalyst. It is only when managers grasp
this (or they experience it as a direct report themselves),
do they see the relevance and importance of such a time
consuming activity as coaching.

Of course, there is a related issue here ' does the direct
report trust the manager as "coach"? If the manager has
not previously built a culture of trust within his/ her
team, then it becomes increasingly difficult to be seen as
a non-biased coach.

3. Personal style.

Does a manager have it? Can it be developed? The final and
often most difficult challenge for the manager as coach, is
to remain non-directive - merely asking questions,
summarising, listening and only giving advice when it is
asked for and then only at the appropriate times. For many
managers, this is a major challenge as their normal
directive style is the polar opposite.

On one leadership development programme I am involved with,
I have the opportunity to ask managers to rank their
natural style used when problem solving (or handling
performance issues) with their people on a continuum
ranging from "tell exactly what to do and how to do it"
through to "ask questions, listen and paraphrase". 80% of
manager rank themselves toward the directive end of the
continuum. This is then confirmed in practice coaching
sessions.

I used to run training sessions where the participants did
a theory plus self report exercise to discover their style
as a coach. Often the understanding of coaching and the
application, were quite different. One HR person, who had
studied coaching for 12 months, scored fantastically well
on the coaching inventory and knew all the theory.
However, when it came to practise sessions, her style was
directly the opposite. This was not uncommon.

I now have the luxury of working with managers on a two
week residential programme where they can see coaching
being modelled, understand the theory, experience being
coached (on real issues) and practise coaching others. As
trainers, we need to look for a variety of learning methods
that include modelling, understanding, experience and
practice.

Improved performance through effective coaching should be
the goal for managers as it does have a real payoff for
both the manager and the organisation. At a more basic
level, the challenge for us as trainers, is to provide the
learning stimulus for the normal manager to change his or
her spots.

----------------------------------------------------
Bob Selden is the author of the newly published "What To Do
When You Become The Boss" ' a self help book for new
managers. He also coaches at the International Institute
for Management Development in Lausanne, Switzerland and the
Australian Graduate School of Management, Sydney. You can
contact Bob via http://www.whenyoubecometheboss.com/