LEADERSHIP AND COACHING

Winning coaches understand if they want to keep winning they can't focus on the score. The score can't be coached or managed. Instead, they have to identify the causes that produce the score they want and start coaching and managing those causes.

Are you running an organization or managing people. Are you an executive who needs to improve their company's results? It's fairly simple, even easy, to identify the results you want or need to produce. However results can't be managed. Improving areas or generating new results requires identifying the causes that produce them and coaching and managing those causes.

The first thing to acknowledge is that all working people are like performing artists. They're really the same as athletes, actors or musicians who need coaching or direction to produce peak performance. Once you acknowledge this you can begin to understand their need to be coached. In fact, you will start to understand what's missing in most organizations. IT'S LEADERSHIP AND COACHING!

Here are the areas and some specifics for you to get started if you are going to stop being a frustrated traditional executive or manager and become a successful leader who coaches people to their peak performance.

Create A Performance Culture
Instill an attitude that their work is a performance art. Build a team of passionate people who care about customers and helping people while being an advocate for their profession. This will require the full force of your will. You'll need a firm belief that you are working to leave a legacy, not just working to produce results. I used to advise my clients to only hire people who already had a passion to pursue being their best and had an outstanding work ethic. This doesn't work any longer because you won't find enough people that possess these traits. We've experienced too much of a deterioration in what's considered average. Our standards have fallen. You need to be prepared to develop and inspire people to grow and improve if you want to be a successful leader or coach.

Recruiting
Do you know your next employee? Do you have a bench, feeder system? Do you know where to look for your next employee? A coach's first action is to recruit people. This has two purposes. First, performers should know if they don't perform they can be replaced. This is the first step in instilling a performance culture. Second, and more obvious, you need to find the people you want to work with. You want to do this differently than your competition so you have a better chance of hiring people you can coach who will create a winning organization.

Coaching...Attitudes
Attitudes produce actions that generate results. Attitudes are dominant thoughts and beliefs that make up a person's state-of-mind while raising their ability to perform to their peak. Top coaches manage attitudes that create the company's atmosphere or culture. Coaches instill dominant thoughts that create positive attitudes and high emotional intelligence. This requires making personal contact daily with your people to check their attitudes. This allows time for you to support positive attitudes or coach them up to make sure they are ready to perform.

Teaching/Training...Skills and Knowledge
Coaches are always teaching. They teach to improve the skills and knowledge of their people. They train people by holding them accountable to learn and improve.  It's a coaches responsibility to make sure people train so they are prepared to perform to their peak. Being a teacher and trainer is an ongoing part of being a coach. So, coaches have to study, learn and grow regularly if they are going to be a successful leader. Regular scheduled education for learning and growth are a coaches responsibility but creating a culture where change, learning and growth are a habit is the real requirement for success.

Managing...Actions
Managing actions is the exercise of assigning and monitoring the work of your people. The people who don't want to improve won't like being held accountable and they often call this micro-management. It's not micro-management, it's responsible management. There are two distinct purposes for monitoring work. The first is accountability. The second, and most important, is to create real life opportunities to coach attitudes, teach skills and knowledge while assigning actions to be taken that you can monitored and do this all again. This is the circle of coaching, teaching, training and managing to coach teach and train that will produce the improved results you desire.

These are just some of the skills a successful leader and coach must master and practice daily. Peak performing management and coaching are often the missing links in a company or organization. I have been coaching, teaching and training executives and managers for more than 20 years. I was first taught these traits by my father, a football coach, and later had them reinforced in one-on-one sessions with John Wooden. I have since practiced, polished and developed them in real life business environments while by implementing them with my clients.

By Mike Moore

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IMPATIENT AND UNREALISTIC

Leaders believe things can be done more quickly and that more is always possible. They understand there are limits but are always looking for ways to exceed them. They see obstacles as a sign they are on the right path to accomplish significant results because obstacles stand between mediocrity and their destination.

This often makes them hard to deal with if they aren't servant leaders who realize people come before results, because people produce the results.

Being decisive and taking action are key traits of these top leaders. They don't wait for the perfect plan because they know it doesn't exist. Instead, they are flexible so they can take actions to implement their plans and perfect them as they go along. This produces positive results while others are working to perfect their plan. It also creates a culture of change, adaptation and flexibility within the people in the organization they lead. In addition, it provides the opportunity to coach, teach and train people as they implement and adjust their plan.

These top leaders aren't quick to make decisions because they are rash or rush to judgement. It's because they are always paying attention, have a vision, purpose and mission that drives where they are going. This helps give them understanding, insight and intuition that enables them to be decisive and take action.

They adjust as they go because they are confident enough in where they are going so their ego doesn't get in the way. This allows them to be flexible by not worrying about being right, but instead, focusing on doing what's best to get where they are headed.

So, leaders know where they're going, pay attention and make decisions with ease. They challenge their followers to the point that they are often seen as unrealistic and impatient but these traits serve to produce superior results.

By Mike Moore

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TIPS & TRAITS OF TOP LEADERS

LEADERS EARN RESPECT...BEFORE APPROVAL OR FRIENDSHIP!

TIP...BUILD TRUST

     Be accountable...Take responsibility

     Create an open, positive, risk taking environment

     Focus on solutions, not fault finding and assigning blame

     See unwanted results as an opportunity to improve individuals and the organization

     Don't be defensive...

     You don't have to have all the answers...Just help people find them

TIP...SET & HOLD HIGH STANDARDS

     Raise the bar...The lowest form of behavior you allow is who you are as a leader

     Blur the lines between job assignments...The mission is everyone's job

     Don't allow average behavior

     Assign and monitor all work to teach and coach using specifics

     Hold people accountable

TRAIT...CARE MORE ABOUT PEOPLE THAN RESULTS

     Manage people's attitudes before they become actions and poor results

     Don't allow people to accept average behavior

     Care enough to challenge people to get them to do what they don't want to do

     Don't overreact...Make people more important than results and the results will improve

     Teach, coach and mentor to help people grow

TRAIT...SUPPORT & VALIDATE PEOPLE

     Make taking time for people a priority

     Be respectful...Pay attention and listen

     Ask people's opinions...Pay attention and listen

     Reward extra effort...Pay attention

     Make people feel important...Pay attention

     Did I mention...Pay attention

TRAIT...EMBRACE CHANGE, MAKE IT A RITUAL

     Be a change advocate...Lead the change

     Encourage change...Ask people how they and the organization can improve

     Question everything...Never except or settle for the status quo

     Help people change to improve...When they don't, change your people

Be mindful that people will treat each other and your customers the way you treat them!

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THE ROAD AHEAD...NEW LEADERSHIP REQUIRED

We are headed for more trouble as many of you are witnessing and sharing with me daily. The majority of stories shared with me include faltering hopes, negative attitudes and a sense of doom from those on the front lines of business...salespeople. Frustration is mounting among many salespeople that their daily reality and their companies leadership approach aren't aligned. In fact, many salespeople feel their companies leadership is detached from their reality.

We are, and have been, in a transition to a 'new age of business' for many years. As a point of reference, the 'digital age' wasn't a transition to a new economy or age of business, it wasn't an age at all. It was the addition of advancing technology to the industrial age. The transition we are in now is a transition as significant as the one from the agricultural age to the industrial age and includes a shift to a 'new economy'. We have been experiencing the pain of this transition since 2008 because it was seen as part of the old cyclical economy instead of a major transition or shift.  

Leaders responded with old solutions to past cyclical downturns, instead of reacting to the transition with new ideas, thinking and actions.

Many business leaders are still suffering from 'economic normalcy bias'...They believe because it's never happened to them before it won't happen now. Their past experience and comfort clouds their vision. What they're experiencing is very much like the people who believed the earth is flat...Their belief didn't make it true, it only held them back and robbed them from exploring what was possible. It took new thinkers with a vision of a new world and the courage to fail, to explore the truth and succeed...Just as it will today. Mainstream economists are starting to acknowledge that we're not in a downturn but have entered a 'new economy'.

Too many leaders and almost all followers are waiting for and banking on a recovery that isn't coming...I am not sharing this with you as bad news, it isn't doom and gloom. In fact, this transition is good news! 

Great news, in fact, for those with clear vision, courage and the right attitudes to take advantage of the opportunities a 'new age of business' presents. The leaders in this 'new age of business' will experience great new successes just as those in the past did.

Struggling with this transition shouldn't come as a surprise though. It happened before. It's hard to be a successful leader from one age to the next because what made you a success in one doesn't assure your success in the next.

Contrary to most, I don't believe change is painful...I believe it's the resistance to change that causes the pain. The evidence of this is seen when we embrace change and become reenergized with new vision for the future or resist change and suffer in the fight to maintain our comfort with our status quo and past successes.

The old cyclical economy is broken and there is no recovery coming but there are many opportunities for new leadership to succeed today and in the coming years .

What we are experiencing is different, unique in fact. Changes in demographics, business and work ethics, consumer attitudes, economic debt, technology and globalization have all come together to drive this transition. There will be many winners in the 'new age of business'. The question is will you be one or will you get caught holding on until it's too late?

For those leaders holding on to the old economic model, the temporary short-term successes experienced, read or heard about, just help them hold on to the status quo a little longer and postpone their successful transition. 

For those with vision, who trust their instincts and truly believe people are a businesses greatest asset, new achievements and success are just around the corner.

Change, real change, is coming and it's bringing with it new amazing opportunities for those with the courage to truly put people first, hold them to a higher standard, embrace new thinking and take bold new actions. These people will become the leaders in this 'new age of business' and begin to writing the next chapter in history.

Welcome to the 'people first age of business'.

By Mike Moore

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LEADERSHIP...THE POWER OF CARING

After a leader decides their job is to serve people, the greatest power they possess is caring for the people they serve. Make no  mistake. Caring is a choice leaders have to make. They may not always like all the people they serve but they have to choose to care about them or they are not a leader, just a manager doomed to produce average results.

No one will trust or follow someone they think cares more about money, things or results than they do about them. People accept direction, guidance and teaching from a person they believe cares about them, wants the best for them and is willing to hold them accountable to a higher standard than they hold for themselves. They develop loyalty and a willingness to follow someone who demonstrates their concern for them and wants what's best for them. They instinctively know that someone who cares about them believes in them.

Leaders also understand that people don't always like their leader when they are holding them accountable. In fact, I believe the phrase micro-mangement was created by followers to try and get leaders to stop paying attention to what they were doing, leave them alone and let them be average.

Leaders don't accept average behavior or people who accept being average. They understand that not everyone wants to be exceptional...If you are in a leadership position and you believe your responsibility is to help everyone become exceptional, then you're fighting a losing battle. Not all people want to be exceptional and you don't need them to be for your organization, company or team to be extraordinary.

You only need your people to be above average by executing your plan with enthusiasm, commitment and concern for each other, to create an extraordinary company or organization. When this happens, and only when this happens, do they become a true team. Until then, they're a group of individuals working for you and it's the leaders job to serve them until they become a team.

When you care about people you are committed to making them the best they are willing to be. This gives you the courage to challenge them, hold them accountable and accept that they will not always like you but they will respect you and eventually call you a mentor.

In this position you will be teaching continually. That's what leaders do. They are tireless teachers committed to helping the people they serve to learn, grow and improve. To do this, leaders have to develop the habit or ritual of continual learning.

When the choice to care is made, leaders stop wanting all their people to think alike, or think like them. They become less defensive of their position, open up and begin to embrace the differences, strengths and weaknesses of the people they serve. They are better able to evaluate people's talents, skills and self-discipline so they can put them together to produce the best results.

After all, no winning organization is ever made up of all 'milk drinkers', people who all think and act the same. It takes a diverse group of people with different skills to win and it takes a leader who cares about them to bring them together. The best way to make this happen, is to choose to care more about the  people you serve rather than your plans or results. When you do, they will follow you and become a team who cares about each other and your plans.

They will be a team on a mission with a 'people first' leader who cares about and serves them. This is the best way to get a group of mostly average people to rise above mediocrity and produce extraordinary results.

By Mike Moore

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DON'T WANT TO BE AVERAGE? BE BETTER PREPARED!

How can you prepare to be more cheerful, happy and prepare to handle the hassles of a normal day? How can you assure yourself of not being average? 

When people wake up in the morning they have an expectation or intention for their day. It's a choice that separates average for extraordinary. What are your intentions or expectations for the day ahead?  I've asked individuals and groups, large and small, this question over the past two decades and the overwhelming number one answer is, “I want to have a good day”.  When I ask people to define a good day, the definition is, “A day with little to no problems or hassles”.   When I ask them how many days a year this intention or expectation is met, they usually answer, “None”.  Yet, they wake up each day and repeat this behavior without changing their expectation or intention. The vast majority of people start each day with an unrealistic expectation or intention, that when not fulfilled, makes them frustrated, upset and unhappy. When we set expectations that aren't met, we are usually disappointed.

Managing your own intentions and expectations drives your daily emotions and state-of-mind. Average people focus on their circumstances and not their solutions. This makes their circumstances the driver of their emotions. This will make their emotions or state-of-mind a roller coaster ride of peaks and valleys that sabotage their ability to create the results or life they want. 

First, let’s look at why people set an intention or expectation of no problems, no hassles and no worries, and defined this as a good day.  When we wake up each day we have a choice to make, “Better or Comfortable”.  Our human nature seeks comfort before improvement and is satisfied to be comfortable. We don't want to be average but have to choose to do things we don't want to do if we want to be above average. We don’t wake up each day driven to be better human beings or to make things in our life better.  So, the challenge is how to overcome our human nature and stop sabotaging our own lives. 

When we define a good day as no problems, no hassles and no adversity and then meet the first problem of the day, how do we react? If you said, “Frustrated” you'd be right.  Your expectation or intention has set you up to be frustrated. Not the best state-of–mind to handle life or work problems. This pattern of behavior begins a downward spiral of poor emotions. These emotions make you less capable of handling the next problem. Maintaining this emotional cycle may even make you avoid, withdraw or quit trying to overcome the obstacles in your day. The end result of this is average, at best.

How can you change your expectations or intentions to change your results? Remember, "Everyday the choices you make, makes you".  When you start your day, change your expectation or intention by changing your definition of a good day.  Let’s revisit the idea or definition of a good day. If your choice is comfort you define it as “no problems”. Think about when you feel best about yourself. Your self-worth or self-esteem is best when you overcome adversity, solve problems and help others.  So to change your results, to develop the emotional state-of-mind to make a difference in your life, you need a new definition of a good day.

This new definition can help you make a better first choice as you wake up each day. Define a good day as one where you find, meet and overcome problems and adversity. Yes, you need to wake each day looking for problems.  Problems to solve that will help people.  Just a note...You shouldn't be looking to make problems...that won't make for a better life. You need to look for and find existing problems, and then help solve them.  If you are part of a problem, stop complaining and start finding solutions. This definition will help you to stop avoiding conflict and endure difficulties with the proper emotional state-of-mind.  Armed with this new definition, when you find problems, you will be eager to meet them head-on and won't become frustrated.  You'll become an overcomer and not a victim of your circumstances.

Adversity and problems are the obstacles that stand between where you are and the results or life you want.  The first step to overcoming adversity and problems is to develop an attitude or emotional state-of-mind that can overcome the obstacles. Our attitudes are most affected by our intentions and expectations that create our daily choices and allow us to choose to be better rather than comfortable. This thinking will even start to help you embrace change and stop fighting to hold on to a status quo that may be keeping you average as well. 

Redefine a good day, expect problems and hassles. Become an overcomer, a solution finder, and then you'll begin to experience a, 'Good Day'...everyday. This cycle of behavior will make your life is a journey of solutions that serve others and rewards you with the results and life you want.

A final thought for leaders...You are responsible to teach, prepare and help people set expectations that will allow them to live and work towards a better life. Helping people understand how their expectations and intentions are empowering them or sabotaging them is a good first step.

Change your expectations to prepare for the hassles of life to increase your happiness and improve your results. Expect more of yourself and less of others...These is one of the top traits of leaders and peak performers.

By Mike Moore

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LEADERS SET AND RAISE STANDARDS

Leaders set and raise standards. Let's be clear what that means. It's not the averages...It's not your best...Standards are the lowest form of behavior you will accept.

At the end of the day the lowest form of behavior you accept, is who they are as a leader. Think about that for a minute and let it sink in...Re-read it!

Once you accept that who you are is attached to the lowest form of behavior you accept, once it truly sinks in, it should motivate you to deal with that person or persons who has been lagging behind or causing you to be frustrated. It should also make you look at the bottom and work to raise the standards not just celebrate the top and hope that the bottom 'Gets It'. This understanding will motivate you to stop sending subtle messages and start communicating openly, honestly and directly. Making direct communication your strength is a key component to becoming a 'people first' leader. This will help make the standards clear to those who have to perform to meet them.

Focusing on setting and raising standards motivates leaders to spend their time working on their lowest performers . This means they have to invest their time in the people who they'll least want to spend it with. Until you decide your job as a leader is to improve the lowest performers you'll avoid them and spend too much time with the top performers. That's often what managers do, but leaders know and understand it's the bottom performers that drag the organization down so they invest their time in them.

Leaders are always teaching people to do what they don't want to do, to get what they want and it starts with you...If you do what you don't want to do, what you'd put at the bottom of your 'To Do List' first, then you'll get what you really want...Higher standards and improved performance.

Celebrate success and enjoy your top performers, but invest in those that can improve the most.

Raising the standard will raise the performance of your middle performers because they don't want to be too close to the bottom. This in turn will drive the top performers as they will rise to the occasion and maintain their position at the top while setting new highs.

Setting and raising standards increases everyone's pride in their position and organization. Most people may not be motivated to be extraordinary, but no one wants to be average...Maintaining high standards will improve everyone self-image, personal pride in their organization and motivation to not accept average behavior.

Setting and raising standards is where the hard edge of leadership comes in. No compromise is acceptable or it isn't a standard, just a suggestion.

Standards are met or there are consequences...The first consequence is more attention, coaching and teaching. The last consequence is replacing people to maintain the standard. Invest your time in the bottom performers , raise the standards, help people change to meet them...or change your people.

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LEADING BY EXAMPLE...FULFILLING YOUR PURPOSE

Help people prepare, learn and grow so they'll recognize, seize and fulfill the opportunities available to them.

This doesn't always mean you'll be liked or popular with those you are responsible to lead. Most people don't like to prepare, learn or grow. Most people just want to be comfortable, it's part of all our human nature, and when leaders challenge, push and stretch people they usually put up some resistance.

It's a leaders responsibility to teach, motivate and inspire people to overcome their human nature, natural tendencies, and experience the best of themselves. When people don't overcome their human nature they become average , and average has to be unacceptable for a leader.

As a leader, your credibility and influence will come from being a person who does this themselves...Your influence will increase when you display the ability to discipline yourself to prepare, learn and grow...To overcome your human nature.

Leading by example isn't the willingness to do what you ask others to do, it's the willingness to do be you should be, while helping others become who they should be. It's about finding and fulfilling your purpose and helping others find and fulfill theirs.

By Mike Moore

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INTENTIONS CHANGE RESULTS

Most people don't need new skills as much as
they need new intentions, attitudes and leadership.
We cannot choose the path of least resistance, 

the easy way, and get exceptional results.

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TIPS & TRAITS OF PEAK PERFORMERS

Comfort and familiarity are the enemy of peak performance. You are in danger of losing your edge when you reach a comfortable place or become too familiar with your routines. After reaching a comfort zone when familiarity sets in, it breeds boredom which reduces enthusiasm.  

This comfort and boredom causes people to stop being curious, learning, growing and pursuing new challenges and achievements.  Comfort can never be the primary goal if you want to be a peak performer but it can sneak up on you and sabotage the mind-set needed to be a peak performer.

When you seek comfort and achieve it, the danger is that you'll begin to protect your comfort zone and stop working to change, grow and improve. In fact, you can begin to become defensive and aggressively resisting change.

Albert Einstein defined insanity as, "Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result." My definition is, "Most people choose the easy way or path of least resistance, and then expect exceptional results".

Studies have shown most people will fight to stay in an unhappy situation rather than move into an unfamiliar or unknown situation that could bring them happiness. It's giving in to these natural desires for comfort and familiarity that makes most people produce mediocre results. They are the drivers of average behavior. They are the enemies of peak performance.

A peak performers biggest challenge is to reject the natural human desire to seek comfort and make a habit of pursuing change, growth and improvement. It's really an issue of becoming comfortable with the unfamiliar and staying outside your comfort zone. In the end all great achievements begins with self-discipline and the will to take actions other work to avoid.

Peak performers do the things average people avoid. They wake up each day and do the things they don't want to do because they know everything of value in life is the result of actions they don't want to take. One of life's great truths is that extraordinary achievements are on the other side of obstacles. In reality, the greater the achievements you pursue, the more obstacles you'll encounter.

Average achievers are more motivated by discomfort than by the desire to improve and achieve. Most people seek improvement until they are comfortable and then they resist change with the same energy they pursued comfort. 

Coach John Wooden said, "When you think you're through learning, you're through."  The most deadly words in the world are, 'I know that',  because the next thing someone does after they think or say those words is to stop listening, reading or learning.

When things get tough and change is needed, comfort often motivates people to 'hunker down' and 'wait' until things get better rather than taking actions and looking for alternatives to make things better.  Peak performers guard against stopping their forward progress, innovative thinking and advocating change by never seeking comfort.

Peak performers treat comfort as a plateau to be reached and a launching pad to their next achievement. Peak performers keep climbing because they know if they don't they risk falling becasue fighting to maintain your comfort level is a recipe for unhappiness, mediocrity or failure. Average is just not an options to peak performers.

When the time comes that you'd rather be comfortable more than to pursue change, grow and improve, you are at risk of losing what you are so comfortable having. For peak performers, the choice is simple, even though it's not easy. Peak performers change directions and start again with new enthusiasm. Peak performers are energized by change. They view resistance to change as painful, not the change itself. 

Peak performers are great competitors and great competitors usually lose the will to prepare before they lose the desire to perform and achieve. When this happens, performance suffers and the end is near. 

We are facing unprecedented challenges today and new thinking, attitudes and skills are needed to achieve peak performance. The exciting news is it's an interesting time to live and work. 

There really isn't a risk in letting your comfort go because it's almost impossible to maintain it without change, growth and improvement. Holding on to comfort is like holding water in your hands, it will eventually evaporate, won't allow you to use your hands for anything else and it's easier to just find new water when you need it.

To keep your focus and peak performers mind set, set aside a few minutes each day to suspend what you defend. Set aside your beliefs, knowledge and experience while you attempt to learn something that is unfamiliar or unknown. This can even be looking at what you've been resisting, take the other side and try to argue its validity to yourself...Just give yourself a few moments to not be defensive and protect your position to see what else might be possible.

Peak performers re-energize themselves by embracing change and stretching themselves outside their comfort zones.  Be careful that the attitude and strategy to 'hunker down' and "'wait' for things to improve doesn't sneak into your thinking. 

In the pursuit of peak performance you'll have to stop pursuing comfort, resisting change and holding on to your status quo. Instead, you'll need to challenge yourself to think without limits and become a change agent whose pursuit is achieving all that's possible. Remember your goals are to be plateaus and a launching pad pursuing to achieve all that's possible.

By Mike Moore

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PEOPLE FIRST LEADERSHIP

The customer is always right. How dumb were we to follow this mantra? I think most of us in business and sales can explain what this philosophy was intended to be and yet we've all witnessed the unintended consequences.

This attitude came from our desire for instant gratification which never generates the best results. Do whatever it takes to make sales became the strategy in the, 'Just win baby! and  Just Do It!' age. To win today the mantra needs to shift to, 'Just Do It Right' but first let's look at the unintended consequences before we talk about how to be the leader who can reverse their effects.

The unintended consequences...

If the customer is always right, then the employee is always wrong. Imagine going to work and knowing you will always be wrong...Very demoralizing.

A dysfunctional relationship between buyers and sellers occurred during, 'The Customer Is Always Right' age because buyers were entitled too much and salespeople were focused on make a sale, not doing what's best for the buyer.

The focus on making new sales, not customers, caused buyers to feel that salespeople were more concerned about the transaction than they were about them or the outcome they wanted. Mistrust grew.

Salespeople, customer service and executives became afraid to tell buyers no, walk away or look for a better relationship. Business is all about relationships and it needs a healthy one between buyers and sellers to grow a profitable business.

People were actually treated poorly. Employees were abused and buyers indulged to the point they became spoiled, non-compliant buyers who couldn't be satisfied, sold at a profit or had any loyalty.

Employees began to not trust their own companies. The belief that the company really didn't care about them or the buyer grew. They started to feel that the company only cared about making a profit. Don't get me wrong, leaders need to make sure their company is profitable or they won't be around to care about people. However, if people are their company's greatest asset then they need to act like it.

The phrase 'Do what's best for the buyer' was, and in most cases still is, interpreted as, 'Do whatever they want' to get them to buy or go away if they are complaining.

We intended to improve customer service by pleasing the buyer.  Instead, spoiled consumers soon had no loyalty. This reduced their buying decision to the lowest price which usually didn't result in what was best for the them, creating more dissatisfaction. This became a vicious cycle and war broke out between buyers, sellers and companies.

We talked about customer satisfaction, spent millions on surveys and customer retention programs while our intention and focus to make new customers (sales), offended our existing customers.

None of this is part of a good business plan which created many unrealistic expectations that could not be met.

Business historians will surely look back and write about how foolish 'The Customer Is Always Right' age of business was and the mess we made of business relationships during this period. We chased short term gains and created long term disaster!

Now it is time for the 'People First' age of business and the good news is that the results can be the largest economic boom in history.

To lead your business to the healthiest, most profitable place, you'll have to be more realistic and your people will need to be more important than your customers. That's right, 'People First Leadership' starts with your people, then you can create a 'Customer First Company'

'People First Leaders' do what's best for the people who work for them, and then ask them to always do what's best for the buyer.

A 'Customer First Company' makes customers, not just sales. Doing what's best isn't always what the buyer wants but what's in their best interest. This holds true with your employees as well. What's best for them isn't always what they want but it's a leaders responsibility to serve people, not please people. Serve your people and ask them to serve others and make customers and your sales, revenue and profits will increase. In addition, you'll create long term sustainable growth.

I knew an uneducated man, a high school drop-out, who ended up owning a car wash.  He left for lunch one day and left his son in charge.  When he returned from lunch he found his son at the booth taking new customers money.  The line of cars to wash grew longer.  They seemed busy with lots of new customers and the son was happy.  The son felt good as he talked with the new customers waiting to get their cars washed and the line continued to grow. The father took the son aside and explained that it's easy to take people's money but the most important part of the business was to keep them coming back. He further explained that it only happens because of perfectly washed cars.

He made the point to his son to stay focused getting the cars washed and keeping the line moving. I said he was uneducated, I didn’t say he wasn’t smart.  The memory of this event comes to mind even when I am working with large corporations, industry leaders and multi-million dollar companies. 

He was explaining 'People First Leadership' without knowing it. It's always more important for a leader to spend their time with the people who make customers because customers come back and send other people to your business ready to become new customers. In addition, word of mouth spreads virally in the social age and allows 'Customer First Companies' to establish their brand and grow faster.

This is 'People First Leadership' and it works for all businesses and organizations. Make the people who serve your customers more important than new sales and your business will prosper and grow. 

By Mike Moore

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YOU WON'T WIN WATCHING THE SCOREBOARD

To win in business and life, stop watching the scoreboard and start coaching or playing the game to the best of your ability! You'll be able to deal with the final score if you always give your best effort, but you won't give your best effort while watching the scoreboard.

We're living and working in a rapidly shifting world and economy so you can't just wait for a recovery or things to go back to normal. You can't produce new success by going back to good old basics. In fact, anything with 'back' in it is the wrong strategy this time around. 

Selfish, short-term intentions have created poor behavior that has led us to a crisis in personal and business relationships alike. These selfish intentions cause people and businesses to look at what's in it for them, work to get more while providing less and damages the relationships that can make us rich both personally and professionally.

These selfish intentions have caused people to look only at today's scoreboard and not at the final score. We've been so busy winning the first quarter we're losing the game. Life and business are both best when built on a sustainable 'people first' culture.

Championship coaches don't spend their time focused on the scoreboard or asking the players what the score is during the game. If they did, they'd lose more often than they'd win. This behavior is what executives and sales managers have been doing for years and it's no wonder businesses are struggling because this behavior sabotages the score. In business, this behavior creates a focus on new sales, new subscribers and today's numbers instead of customers which generates diminishing, unsustainable results. Making customers makes a business healthy, profitable and sustainable.

Poor intentions are sneaky, they slip in unintended and damage the result we want. Take for example when the boss asks, “How are you doing?”, what do they mean?  They are most often checking up on sales and a discussion of the company’s sales statistics ensues. Typically, right after this conversation, calls are made down the chain of command to each level until a sales manager calls a salesperson or store manager with the same conversation. This, “How are you doing?”, when we mean, “How are sales?” needs to stop.  This is the coach asking the players the score during the game.  

We need new conversations that will only occur from new intentions and generate a new sales engagement with consumers. We need a 'people first focus' to build relationships and generate positive results by serving people rather than trying to please them.

Watching the score and waiting for it to get better won't get it done this time. There's no recovery coming, just opportunities to begin again. This time, our best opportunity is to play the game with new thinking and intentions that can drive the attitudes, skills and actions that will produce healthy relationships with consumers and generate success!

It's so easy to slide back into the instant gratification of making new sales rather than customers. It's the comfortable old path that sabotages the possibility for your new success.

It will take 'people first leadership' to create a 'customer first company' and solid sales management to keep salespeople on track to win and generate a healthy new economy.  

By Mike Moore

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THE TRANSITION TO A 'PEOPLE FIRST ECONOMY'

The signs are clear that the economy has been and is in transition with the failure of Borders, collapse of Blockbuster, bankruptcy at Kodak, big changes at JC Penny, rumors of Best Buy's demise, the worst year in US Home Sales ever, a threat of a worldwide recession and not enough room to list the failed banks! There are countless other businesses trying to survive until a recovery comes but they are on a course to fail.

There are too many leaders suffering from 'normalcy bias', waiting for a recovery that isn't coming. This is producing strained and stressed sales managers, needy, desperate salespeople and sales trainers teaching the same sales skills with the intention to make a sale. All of them working harder and putting more pressure on consumers to buy that's helped create today's dysfunctional buyer and seller relationship. Add to that, consumers don't trust or believe salespeople, changing demographics, maturing use of technology, the explosion of social networks and it's the perfect storm for a transition to a new era in business. This is no less dramatic than the shift from the agricultural age to the industrial age...New intentions, thinking, attitudes, skills and actions are required to make the transition to a 'people first age' in business!

Success in this 'new economy' will require new business and sales intentions to generate a new engagement, connection and conversation with consumers for a healthy relationship. Nothing else will produce immediate results and sustainable growth better or faster!

It's not back to basics unless you want to just slow your failure... It's forward with new intentions for a successful new 'people first economy'!

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ACCOMPLISHING YOUR GOALS...THE MISSING STEP

We all have wishes, hopes and dreams but to turn them into goals and unleash their power, they have to be put in writing with a date to be completed.  


Wishes, hopes and dreams rarely come true while goals are often accomplished. 


Setting your goals is actually step three in accomplishing them. Step two is creating an action plan. You’ll need to start at step three and work backwards to create the first step to accomplishing your goals.

When people set goals they often don’t make an action plan for how to accomplish them and set themselves up to fail. For those who set goals and make an action plan, they’re still missing the most important and powerful step. They’re missing the first step and real driver behind accomplishing their goals. Most people fail to accomplish their goals because of this missing step!

Deciding who you need to become, the person who will take the actions in your plan is the powerful first step in accomplishing your goals. If you don’t change who you are, you won’t change your behavior. If you don’t change your behavior, you won’t achieve your goals.

To accomplish your goals, think in terms of these steps…Start at step three, setting your goals. Then take step two by making an action plan. Be aware that if you stop there and start trying to take actions you have set yourself up to fail, become frustrated with goal setting, and eventually stop setting goals altogether.

After setting your goals and making your action plan, take step one…decide the person you have to become to take the actions in your plan. Decide what attitudes, intentions, beliefs and character traits are needed to be the person who would naturally take the actions you’ve planned.

Now use these three steps to accomplish your goals. Start at step one, working on becoming that person. This may also give you insight to a better timetable to accomplishing your goals. If it does, then re-write your goals with a new date for them to be accomplished. This will help make your action plan and goals more realistic and more achievable.

Starting with this missing step will create less frustration and help you start working on the core cause of your accomplishing your goals…YOU!

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WHAT WINNING LEADERS MANAGE

Raised by a father who coached for 35 years, the first lesson he taught me was to walk into a locker room and take in or feel the atmosphere and the energy.  He was teaching me what winning coaches did to be successful and I've learned how they can be applied by business leaders to create a successful business. He explained that you could "feel" this winning atmosphere if you were paying attention.   He also said coaches and leaders manage this atmosphere and it's in the air all the time. He said it was more important than any of the x's and o's of coaching.

Growing up listening to coaches’ share their views, thoughts and leadership styles was a huge advantage later in my business career. Listening to pregame, halftime and postgame speeches taught me how to manage and maintain this atmosphere and I share this as often as I can with other leaders.

I was always amazed to watch a game or practice with my father or other coaches as they constantly paid attention to how things felt. I realized later that the average ones were focused on their process and not their players. This is similar to business, as we too often get lost in our process and forget about the people involved.

Next time you walk into a sales office, store or business, see how it feels.  Leaders manage the air.  They do this by managing the attitudes, feelings and beliefs of the people in their business, organization or life.  This is why a business that wants to make customers must manage its people's attitudes, feelings and beliefs first. Consumers won’t believe your company is different if your people aren’t and your people won't act different if their attitude isn't different. 'People first leaders' manage the air or atmosphere generated by people's attitudes. 

'People first leadership', isn’t a fluffy fad or esoteric idea, but the first step in increasing sales and growth in business in the 'new economy'.  Its 'people first' focus means a leader has to have strong enough conviction to stick to a game plan or strategy when others around them are growing weary or wanting to overreact to unwanted results. 

'People first leaders' develop people in their business who are mentally tough enough to execute the strategy when others would falter or take the path of least resistance.

By managing the attitudes, feelings and beliefs of your people, you are leading from where results are born.   From the attitudes that lead to actions, the results will be seen in your increase revenue, profits and growth.  You are leading from an advanced position and not waiting to react to unwanted results that were generated from behavior that was caused by attitudes that were ignored.

Leadership at its essence, generates results by getting people to perform at their highest level of competence. When leaders do this they are also growing the level of people’s competence and insuring growth and higher performance in the future.

Use the attitudes, skills and actions of great coaches who have led their teams to championships by instilling a winning attitude, mental toughness and the ability to overcome the excuses their competitors accept to be average.  Coaches like John Wooden, Vince Lombardi, Pat Riley, Don Shula, Pat Summit, Phil Jackson, Bill Walsh, Bill Parcells, Bill Belichick and many others, win and have won because they 'manage the air' or attitudes that produce winners. Ultimately, they are 'people first leaders' who challenge others to be better than they would be without their influence. They move people to do the things they don't want to do that produce the results they want.

Business in the 'new economy' requires an attitude to make customers, not just sales. Instill this in the hearts of people so that it permeates the air in your business and it will generate improved results and growth.

Stop, listen and feel the attitudes in your business. Can you sense the 'winning air'? If not, get busy and make it a priority, then manage it daily for the best results.

By Mike Moore

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