Some Advice For Sales Managers On How To Plan And Prepare For A Client Visit To Your Company

One technique by which a company can win new clients is by attractive them to pay a trip to the organization's secret headquarters. As the revenue director you need not be existing for the full length of this sort of client check out but you'll need to be sure they're prepared and implemented properly. When thinking about whether or not to encourage a client to pay a trip to your organization's

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5 Fallacies of Sales Management

Revenue control can be as simple or complex as you want it to be. Over the years, I have seen both control designs be successful. Since there is a significant difference in the way in which sales professionals function, it makes sense that there are misguided beliefs both by experts and professionals themselves. I would like to list the 5 myths of sales control that usually areas often in the

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2012...THE GREAT TRANSITION

We are living in 'The Great Transition' not 'The Great Recession' and a 'New Economy' will be the next step. Global influence, technology, demographics and the broken economic model of the past are driving this transition. Today's business and political leaders are struggling with this transition. New leaders will and are stepping forward. A less short-term selfish economic model will prevail. A 'new economy' based on real value and service to people first, one with long-term selfishness as it's driving intention. One that uses natural laws to serve people first, instead of breaking them for selfish short-term gain. A 'new economy' that can and will use technology to serve people and enrich lives.

In real estate, retailing and business, as well as life, people are moving from a desire to be enchanted, to a desire to be enriched. People don't want to be wow'd anymore they are moving to and buying that which they believe will enrich their lives. 

The 'new economic model' won't look or act like the old one and the rules that business played by in the past aren't working in 'the transitional economy' nor will they apply to the 'new economy'.

Just 4 years ago the majority of American's surveyed were willing to move outside the US to retire to a tropical location. Now many will do so to live and continue to work. Then there are the Gen X, Y and Millennial's, many of whom want to live in an Urban Village within walking distance to all their services.

These won't all be in traditional Urban Environments. Many of these Urban Villages will be developed in cost effective and desirable locations. Think Las Vegas as a starting point of a modern Urban Village, then remove gaming and replace it with different lifestyles and the services that support them...and it's in the middle of the desert. Urban Villages can be developed anywhere, and will be.

People are transitioning from the pursuit of a living to the pursuit of a life...This is a significant change...It's not about 40 years of commitment to a company and retiring...It's not about a career...It's about living their vacations or retirement and adding making the money needed to live to that lifestyle. That's why even in this time of high unemployment people are quitting long time jobs, starting small businesses and network marketing is booming. Information, content and community are king!

Stay with it my friends...If you can see and feel this happening you are on a right path. There will be many roads to take to succeed in the 'new economy' that will come from 'the great transition' and you can make the life you want to live if you are aware it's happening and prepared to adapt.

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Discover Why Small Business Search Engine Optimization Marketing Works

Company seo promotion on the regional level is necessary in today's competitive industry. As a on the internet business, putting a easy indication in the window of your on the internet business, or a roads indication just doesn't cut it any longer. I owned a on the internet business myself on Long Island decades ago, my idea of advertising was promotion in the regional town paper. Sometimes

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Effective Tips for Sales Assessment Revealed

Sales evaluation resources can help you in the procedure of choosing revenue reps for your company. Regardless of whether you have a large, method or business, you can create use of these resources to seek the services of the right individuals for the job.Trying to sponsor an efficient revenue staff can be quite complicated at times. Finding the right individuals for the job needs a lot of

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LIVING A LIFE OF BRIGHT MOMENTS

At the peak of tremendous effort, when you have given all you have to give, and find yourself victorious, with your heart pounding in your chest and head, everything becomes still and quiet within you. Your thoughts and feelings seem clearer and illuminated. Everything becomes so bright it's as if a great spotlight has been turned on. At that moment you feel and believe you have the power to overcome any obstacle and conquer any challenge. In that moment you believe you have wings and can soar. There is no more precious moment in life than the bright moments and once you've experienced one, you'll work very hard for as long as it takes to experience another and then another!

The world is full of people going through life on cruise control. We all encounter them daily. Their greatest excitement each day is looking forward to getting off work. This isn't living, it's existing and we've all seen these people and watched as this life path sucks the life out of them. They allow themselves to become victims who find fault, accept mediocrity and become cynical. If that's not the life you want to live...Make a change, choose a path that lights you up and that provides you with the opportunity for those bright moments.

Life is best when taking a path that causes you to wake up everyday excited, looking forward to doing what you will be doing that day. Find a path that excites you. Understand life isn't about making money and it isn't about accumulating possessions. It is about living with passion and giving yourself the opportunity to experience the bright moments.

The victories that produce the greatest bight moments, the lasting, life changing bright moments, are found in helping, serving and caring for others. Everyone has the ability to do this each day and fill each day with bright moments. You have to choose to be less selfish, more giving and stop serving yourself first to open the door to a life of bright moments.

The greatest deception happens when you attach your victories to achievements, accomplishments, wealth or possessions. These things can produce feelings of euphoria but will be fleeting and leave you feeling empty and searching for more without the experience of the true victory and bright moment of making a difference to another person. The quality of your life and depth of your happiness will come from the deep relationships formed in serving others...these are the brightest moments.

Be prepared, you'll find the bright moments on a path that has obstacles. The path that can provide these bright moments will be filled with things you'd rather not do...Things most people won't do. Every path that can provide these bright moments has obstacles and challenges but it has those wonderful bright moments that make life so fulfilling.

The question to ask yourself, "Do I want to do the work, put forth the effort and pay the price to experience those bright moments?". Answer yes, and I promise you, if don't quit until you experience one, you'll be thankful and get busy working to create the next one.

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TIPS AND TRAITS OF TOP PERFORMERS

There are no secrets to success. Learning, modeling and preparing yourself with the time tested traits, attitudes, skills and actions used by top performers is the best way to achieve your best results in your work and life!

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FIVE POWER LEADERSHIP

LEADERS SEEK RESPECT BEFORE APPROVAL OR FRIENDSHIP!

FIRST POWER...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

SECOND POWER...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

THIRD POWER...CARE
     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

FOUTH POWER...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

FIFTH POWER...CHANGE
     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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BUFFET ON A SUCCESSFUL NEW ECONOMY

It hasn't been a recession...It's a transition to a whole new economic model.

Here's what Warren Buffett suggested to cure the economy...During an interview on CNBC. If combined with PeopleFirst Leadership in business and the transition to value based capitalism it could be the start of a great opportunity for everyone.

Buffet told CNBC, "I could end the deficit in 5 minutes,". "You just pass a law that says that anytime there is a deficit of more than 3% of GDP, all sitting members of Congress are ineligible for re-election. 

The 26th amendment (granting the right to vote for 18 year-olds) took only 3 months and 8 days to be ratified! Why? Simple! The people demanded it. That was in 1971...before computers, e-mail, cell phones, etc. 

Of the 27 amendments to the Constitution, seven (7) took 1 year or less to become the law of the land...all because of public pressure. 

Warren Buffet is asking people to forward this as an email, to a minimum of twenty people on their address list and in turn ask each of those to do likewise. 

In three days, most people in The United States of America will have the message. This is one idea that really should be passed around. The results would be increased opportunity and the possibility of a higher standard of living for people today and in the generations that follow. 

Let's get this past...The Congressional Reform Act of 2011 

1. No Tenure / No Pension. 

A Congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they are out of office. 

2. Congress (past, present &future) participates in Social Security. 

All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system, and Congress participates with the American people. It may not be used for any other purpose. 

3. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do. 

4. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%. 

5. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people. 

6. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people. 

7. All contracts with past and present Congressmen are void effective 1/1/12. The American people did not make this contract with Congressmen. 

Congressmen made all these contracts for themselves. Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, so ours should serve their term(s), then go home and back to work. 

"Interesting thoughts...Could be game changer if combined with business leaders realizing that the selfish intentions of business damage their business and they begin to operate based on helping, serving and doing what's best for their employees and customers...PeopleFirst Leadership Is the best solution and path to a successful 'new economy'!" Mike Moore 

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THE OPPORTUNITY FOR A NEW ECONOMY

Time for selfish business intentions to give way to real capitalism based on serving and providing value to people...It's time to get real and be 100% genuine. It's time to do business based on natural laws that allow for short and long term success.

Any business model that's central intention is selfish will eventually implode and that's what's happening to the economy today! There is no recovery coming only the opportunity for a 'value based new economy'!

It will require People First Leadership! Think Henry Ford, Herb Kelleher! It works but takes character, commitment and a firm belief in the true principals of capitalism not the perverted intentions we've experienced in this generation!

Value or service have to be the intended purpose of business with profit as a result...not the central purpose, No more manipulating results for selfish intentions.

The past few decades business leaders intentions have not been much deferent than a thief's...How can I give as little as possible and maximize profits! Any wonder we're on the brink of collapse.

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SALES ATTRACTION POTION

What if you became aware that there was a ‘sales attraction potion’ you could take to prepare yourself to meet people when you’re selling. This ‘potion’, when taken, allowed people to relax, connect and communicate.  Real dialogue happened and people could be helped and served. This connection allowed the engagement and dialogue that sales managers, salespeople and sales trainers have been trying to make happen for years. This ‘potion’ is real and the connection it allows, is necessary if consumers are to get what they want, increase sales and enable a business is to grow.

What if I told you this ‘potion’ has been around for years and really works?  You’d be first in line. “Sign me up”, and “Where do I get more?” are the most common responses. The cynical salesperson wants to know how much it costs. What if I told you it’s free and the supply is unlimited? Well, guess what, it’s real, you can take it all the time and it will not only increase your sales, it will change your life.

Most salespeople are infected with a ‘sales repellent virus’ that their companies, sales managers and sales trainers have handed out this ‘virus’ unknowingly, for free, for years. Even more importantly, when a salesperson is left alone they catch this ‘sales repellent virus’ and even help spread it.  What if I told you when economic conditions get tougher the strength of the ‘sales repellent virus’ increases and more is handed out? Most people in the profession of sales think…’Not me, I’m couldn’t be infected with this virus’…but this virus has been growing for several decades and if it isn’t treated with the ‘sales attraction potion’ it’s will eventually make salespeople extinct.

The result of the majority of salespeople having the ‘sales repellent virus’ for many years now is that selling has become more difficult and the relationship between salespeople and consumers has become damaged. In fact this relationship is so dysfunctional people don’t want to talk to salespeople and salespeople think ‘buyers are liars’. With most salespeople infected with the ‘sales repellent virus’ consumers have become conditioned to avoid salespeople whenever possible and only engage when they have to.  The most common responses to becoming aware of this ‘virus’ is, “What are you talking about?”, and “How can I make sure I don’t have it or spread it?”

We’ll get to, how to avoid the ‘sales repellent virus’ and how to get healed if you have it but it’s more important to understand that there’s an antidote,  ‘sales attraction potion’, that can be used, and when used, will increase your sales, make customers and build your business.

Remember, the supply of ‘sales attraction potion’ is unlimited and free! 

However, even when you know what it is and how to use it, you’ll have to take it every day and you’ll have to keep taking it every time you engage someone in a sales conversation. In short, the ‘sales attraction potion’ is simple to use but wear off easily because other people will be trying to give you the ‘sales repellent virus’.

This usually happens unknowingly and if you aren’t careful it’s easy to catch the ‘sales repellant virus’!

Let’s investigate the ingredients in the potion and the virus that are the same. They include skills, attitudes and actions that are necessary in the profession of sales but insufficient without taking the ‘sales attraction potion’. These three ingredients are the ones companies, sales managers and sales trainers have been teaching and salespeople have been using for years while infected with the ‘sales repellent virus’.  Next, there is the active ingredient that attracts or repels people.  The ‘repellent virus’ makes people avoid and even lie to salespeople while the ‘attraction potion’ connects and starts healing the consumer and salesperson relationship.

By now, I know you’re ready for the active ingredient…The ingredient that causes the ‘potion’ to attract and the ‘virus’ to repel, is a salespersons’ intention when engaging consumers. Before a salesperson speaks and as they try to sell someone, their intentions are felt intuitively by consumers and either attracts or repels them. The consumer then decides unknowingly, preconscious, to connect or avoid the salesperson. The salesperson’s intentions create their demeanor, presence and attitudes and cannot be faked. What the consumer feels or reads is the genuine intention from the salesperson.

The effects of the active ingredient in the ‘virus’ the salesperson has is evident when consumers avoid talking to or opening up even when salespeople ask good questions and genuinely cares about the people they are trying to sell but is infected with the ‘virus’.

‘Trying to sell’ is the active ingredient in the ‘sales repellent virus’. The ‘virus’ even sabotages skilled salespeople who believe in their product and company, care about the consumer, but unknowingly are infected! Even they will repel people more often than they attract them. You can’t hide the virus from people…it is always showing!

The best example of the effects of the ‘sales repellent virus’ or intention to sell, can be witnessed in a new home sales office when watching the interaction between consumers and salespeople. If there is a salesperson and a temp in the sales office and a consumer comes in, they will most often engage the temp and avoid speaking to the salesperson. I’ve personally witnessed this and over the years had many new home salespeople confirm this behavior by consumers.  It’s amazingly interesting that the consumer is attracted by the ‘sales attraction potion’ the temp has taken or repelled by the ‘virus’ salesperson is infected with. The consumer will engage the person that is not infected with the ‘virus’ that contains the intention ‘to sell them something’.

Most companies, sales managers and sales trainers want salespeople to say the right things to create a better conversation with consumers.  They want and teach salespeople to ask better questions and be better listeners. The problem is, when salespeople try to do this, while infected with the ‘sales repellent virus’, consumers won’t engage them and the engagement or conversation stalls.  As long as a salesperson is infected with the ‘virus’, sales will continue to be difficult and the relationship between consumers and salespeople will grow more dysfunctional. In short, people will keep avoiding salespeople until they become extinct.

The active ingredient in the ‘sales attraction potion’ is the intention to help, serve and do what’s best for the consumer. The intention to make customers, not sales, is the missing ingredient and cannot co-exist with the intention to sell. In fact, I’m convinced the intention to sell is the spoiled version of the intention to make a customer. The ‘virus’ wasn’t and never has been anyone intention to spread. It just mutated over the years from paying to much attention to the desired results companies, sales managers, salespeople and sales trainers wanted to create, instead of paying attention to what would create the results. There is too much concern over what we want and not enough concern over what customers want. It’s also obvious that in a difficult economy we spend more time worrying and obsessing over the numbers and less time concerned about the customers concerns so the effects of the ‘virus’ worsen and spread.

When the ‘sales attraction potion’ is taken, the missing link in the sales conversation happens…a connection between the salesperson and the consumer. This connection causes or allows a conversation or real dialogue to take place so a healthy relationship can begin. This is the power of the ‘sales attraction potion’; it makes the consumer/salesperson connection happen and allows the other ingredients in the ‘sales potion’ to be used to best serve the consumer.

The steps of a sale process, which have been taught for many years in various forms, only happen when this connection is made. Consumers only engage salespeople who have taken the ‘sales attraction potion’.  When the connection is made, people are served, customers are made and sales increase while business grows. 

Salespeople who regularly take the ‘sales attraction potion' are more energized because they enjoy their profession more, adding to their success! 

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Leadership Lessons for Success In The New Economy.wmv - YouTube

Leadership Lessons for Success In The New Economy.wmv - YouTube

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SALES LEADERSHIP LESSONS

I have been participating in a discussion on LinkedIn, with sales leaders about selling, sales training and sales management. I'm very concerned and have been for years that business and sales leaders have been sabotaging the relationship between consumers and salespeople. 

If you’re in a position of sales leadership, ask yourself, "What attitudes and actions do my messages create in my salespeople? Is your sales culture sabotaging your sales?

Just a few of the phrases being used in the discussion have been a 'hunter who can find 'em, stalk 'em, kill 'em and eat 'em" or "you have to know what you're hunting so you’ll now how to kill them". 

These phrases create attitudes and actions that turn people off. It's also left the consumer and salesperson, or buyer and seller, with a dysfunctional relationship that's creating a whole ‘new economy’.

My concern is that the majority of salespeople hear 'hunter' and "find 'em, stalk 'em, kill 'em and eat 'em" and it creates attitudes and actions that chase more buyers away than it creates sales. 



The salespeople that can improve a business are not the elite salespeople, it's the majority, from low producers to average producers, and these attitudes have sabotaged their ability to improve. It's also created a sales engagement that has damaged the buyer and seller relationship to the point of sabotaging sales results. 


No one started out to create the dysfunction that exists today between buyers and sellers but the message too may sales trainers, executives and sales managers deliver is translated into the intention to sell and not serve and doesn't produce the best results. 



The intention to make a sale is what buyers and consumers 'feel' that chases them away. Knowing how to put the customer first is an act of long term selfishness. It will produce the best results, highest sales and customers that will grow your business. 



The attitude that new business is what matters most, is what's brought the economy down and it's still damaging salespeople's ability to succeed today.

Customers create sales growth. Businesses and the economy are suffering from the business focus of getting new subscribers, new sales, instead of making customers. 


Years of traditional sales engagements, demographics, multi-cultural issues, the access to information on the internet, unprecedented economic pressures and social networks have changed buying cycles along with buyers and consumers attitudes.

New sales increase fastest when people are engage with the focus on making them a customer, not a sale.

Start sending a message of service and help. Implement a culture of caring about customers more than sales. Beginning teaching and coaching salespeople to be 'servants on a mission’. When you do, sales will increase, your business will grow and everybody will win.

Look for "Traits of a Servant on a Mission" in my next blog.

By Mike Moore

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THREE TRAITS TO LIVING A LIFE THAT MATTERS

When our wants and desires don't match who we are as a person, we live in conflict. Remember this truth. A nation, city, kingdom or person divided against itself cannot stand, in fact, it will be laid to waste. We cannot accomplish, achieve or accumulate possessions and wealth beyond who we are. When we are at odds with ourselves our life will be wasted. To live a life that matters, to be filled with peace, happiness and fulfillment start with these three traits. Don't just practice them, make them your unwavering principals. Make them your normal state-of-mind, who you are and you will be an extraordinary person who reaps the rewards of living a life that matters.

ONE...ALIGNMENT is the first trait to a life that matters. To being happy, content, fulfilled and living life with meaning.

This means we have to acknowledge that we cannot have more than we are worth. People, businesses and countries have been working to achieve without working to become. Results, achievements or our possessions cannot be more than we are. We can cheat this truth for short periods of time but inevitably alignment will catch up with us.

Since achievements and possessions are results, they have to come from actions that are generated by us. There has to be a cause to get an effect. The natural law of alignment states, 'we will get only when we give'. In fact, we'll have to give more than we get, and give without expectation, if we want to sustain our achievement and possessions. This is why instant success is fleeting at best and in fact, most often destroys those who cheat natural laws to achieve, accomplish or accumulate.

TWO...SELF-AWARENESS is the second trait. It is the ability to be honest with ourselves and aware of our true intentions. We cannot live in denial about who we are or what our wants and desires are and ever experience alignment.

Until we understand our intentions in all we do, we will be in conflict or misaligned. We'll be attempting to cheat natural laws by achieving more than we are, instead of aligning who we are with what we want. To live a life filled with self-confidence that will create the results that matter to us, self-awareness is step two. Become the person who will naturally generate the results you want, who you are is the cause that creates the effect that produces your results.

Acknowledging that our human nature is selfish, self-centered and that our thinking is short-term, is key to alignment that can unleash your power to live a life that matters.

Self-awareness is the core of personal responsibility. We cannot learn, grow or become who we want to be if we are not personally responsible. This means we stop blaming others and our circumstances. We then accept the truth that we are who, what and where we want to be until we choose to change.  Then we will become aware that nothing can stop us once we accept these truths.

Setting your faith or religious beliefs aside for just a moment, think about the first story of mankind, Adam and Eve. Their story is about our human nature. Adam and Eve could do anything they wanted to do in the Garden of Eden...except for one thing.  They chose to do that one thing. This was the first act of trying to cheat natural law. When God confronted Adam, what was his response? He blamed Eve and God for his actions. People today do the same thing. They blame their companies and their customers, they blame their families and their friends and the list goes on. It's never about them, it's never their fault. If you are still fighting with this truth, think about that last time you were late to a meeting or an appointment. What were you thinking about on the way? That's right, you were thinking about the reasons why you were late, you began to make up your excuses! We look for excuses before we look for solutions until we become self-aware and take personal responsibility.

You'll stop making excuses when you are aligned and self-aware. This happens because you become personally responsible. This won't sustain your journey to fulfillment, contentment, achievement and a life that matters, but it is the beginning... the first two steps. You will begin producing new results in your life, however it will take step three to overcome the obstacles in your journey and sustain a life that matters.

THREE...SELF-DISCIPLINE is the third trait in becoming and sustaining who you want to be because a life that matters is a journey filled with obstacles.  If you don't learn self-discipline, someone else will have to discipline you.

Once you are aligned, which we've established takes constant adjustment and change through self-awareness, you'll need the ability to sustain your alignment.  Sustaining your alignment requires doing things you don't want to do...self-discipline!

Everything of value in life is on the other side of an obstacle, challenge or problem. This is another truth or natural law. You'll have to be willing to do the things you don't want to do to become the person you want to become. Just think of how you feel about yourself after you've completed something you've been putting off or know would be uncomfortable. Your self-esteem and self-confidence is raised. If you want to keep increasing your self-esteem and confidence keep doing things you don't want to do.

Procrastination is in our nature as well as being reinforced from our earliest years in school. We learn we can get passing grades even if we put off doing the homework or studying until the last possible day. We pass the test or turn in the assignment even though we did the work at the last minute. We never do our best work, achieve to our full potential or grow our potential by procrastinating and doing the work to just get by. A life that matters isn't about a passing grade, it's about living to your full potential and growing that potential. In fact, procrastination or just getting by will drain us and make us miserable, cynical, fault finders. In short without self-discipline we are doomed to be average at best and we increase our odds of being miserable.

That said, most people would rather avoid discomfort or protect their comfort than do the things that make them uncomfortable but increase their personal value and potential. These things are different for each of us, but everyone I've ever spoken to, coached or trained, can make a list of the things they know they should do, but have been putting off. Whether its in your family, work, community, health, fitness or spiritual life, you'll have to do the things you don't want to do, to sustain self-awareness and alignment and live a life that matters.

Start by making that list, attack the things on it first everyday, choose to be uncomfortable to become extraordinary. When you do you'll start to embrace change, grow and become the person you want to be. The person who can naturally achieve the things you want, live with renewed enthusiasm and experience new opportunities.

Become aligned, self-aware and self-disciplined and you'll enjoy the journey of living a life that matters!

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TOO COMFORTABLE TO LEARN, GROW AND IMPROVE

Past success and achievement often breeds comfort. It's also in our human nature to seek comfort even before improvement. It’s this comfort that causes people and leaders to stop improving and protect their success in good times when they get comfortable or reach their desired level of success.

In tough times, like we're now experiencing, it will make people and leaders dig in even deeper to survive and wait until things get back to normal instead of taking the actions to improve and create a new normal.  While this make slow the decline or fall, it certainly de-motivates and demoralizes people and organization. This mind set will enable the final decline and move them or their organization backwards at a time when energy and enthusiasm for the challenges, change and new innovative thinking are desperately needed.

Over the years I have met many people and business executives who seemed to be comfortable with the status quo. These same people and leaders often agree it is time for change, time to improve, but go back to what is familiar and wait for change to overtake them or their organization.  After years of observing this mind set and behavior I am left with only one conclusion.  This happens because they have achieved a personal goal and become a too comfortable with their position or life. This causes them to look to protect their position or possessions instead of using all the attitudes, skills and actions that help them achieve or grow in the first place. 

When things get tough and leadership and changes are needed, their comfort level motivates them to wait until things get better rather than look for alternatives to make things better.  I have never believed these same people or executives achieved their personal goals with this mentality. Rather, they only stopped moving forward, being innovative thinkers and advocates for change and personal growth after they achieved a personal goal and reached a comfort level.  

When bright, aggressive people and leaders, who were able to lead their organization to great achievements, start using language like "hunker down" and "wait", it is most often a sign of comfort or fear and it’s happening too regularly.

When the time comes that people or leaders would rather be comfortable than grow or lead the movement for improvement in their life or organization, it is time for the leader to step down and find a new challenge to get reenergized.  This is true in our personal lives as well...complacency or comfort are our greatest enemies to a happy successful life. Leaders stepping down or finding a new challenge rarely happens in a timely or productive manner and usually occurs after much of the success achieved has been lost.

As a leader...Do you have a plan for stepping down or creating new challenges? In your personal life,...Are you aware when you get too comfortable? Good habits lead to good results but when a habit becomes a rut that drains you of your energy beware. Look for the new challenge to reenergize the achiever in you. 

How will you know when it's time?   One major indicator is when the changes required to keep moving you or your organization forward aren’t energizing but a chore! When our attitudes as leaders are right then change is always energizing. 

Most leaders have the heart of a great competitor. Great competitors usually lose the will to prepare before they lose the desire to perform. When this happens performance suffers.

Often in business, leaders get comfortable with their past achievements or the position they hold and it creates an unwillingness to embrace the changes needed for their organization to move forward to new accomplishments.

Too often achievers or leaders are like the performing artist that can’t let go of past accomplishment or the thrill of the performance and try to perform after their performance deteriorates. Except people's performance in life don't have to deteriorate if they stay committed to learning, growing and change. 

For people, leaders and their organizations, it is best to get reenergized by becoming change advocates.  It is never best to wait for things to get better… Be careful that your life and leadership strategy isn’t to hunker down, wait or survive until things improve.

Don't hide behind the idea of going, back to basics, I've always done it this way, or it's worked this way before. Be ready to make changes, learn, grow and keep making changes to learn again. Remember it's what you learn after you know it all that matters the most and makes the biggest difference.

We are all experiencing a new economy and a new way of life. If you want a happy successful present and bright future then wake up everyday looking for what's possible, what's new.

It's time for people in general, and leaders specifically, to get back to their first loves…challenge, change, innovation and improvement.  This is the best solution in good times, tough times and the best way to re-energize yourself or your organization.

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