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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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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PEAK PERFORMANCE...ON DEMAND

When your opportunity to perform presents itself, will you be nervous and falter, or eager, excited and ready to perform to your best? Will you take full advantage of the opportunity? Peak performers are always ready when their opportunity comes. Champions rise to the occasion and their best comes out when it is needed. How does this happen? Are some people just luckier than others?

The answer is simple...I didn't say easy, just simple. Peak performers, champions and those that sustain peak performance and enter the Hall Of Fame in any industry, have no secret formula. They didn't find a short cut to success. It doesn't exist.

They do possess a special ingredient...One that average performers lack. They develop and depend on self-discipline, they know it's what separates average performers from peak performers. Self-discipline...The will to prepare, the ability to do the work to be at their best when their best is needed. You can become a peak performer, a person who finds and stays in the 'zone' but you'll have to do the little things to be prepared.

You have to put in the time and do the work to know that you're ready. Preparing to perform requires your commitment to do the things that most people avoid. Peak performers invest in themselves by doing the things they don't want to do, that produce the results they want. This is the difference between average and excellent, winning and losing or peak performance and 'choking' when your opportunities present themselves. In addition, opportunities come more often to those who are prepared than to those who are waiting for them to happen. So, self-discipline leads to more opportunities and peak performance.

Peak performance requires preparation spiritually, mentally and physically and this requires self-discipline and the understanding that these stay in that order of priority. Preparing to perform, being healthy and whole, demands all three in the proper order. Until you learn this, and practice the self-discipline to prepare, you will not become a peak performer. When you do, you'll reach new heights and set new standards for yourself.

Self-discipline is the first requirement if you are to be prepared. It is the key step to developing your attitudes and skills. It is the driving force to taking action when others become paralyzed or 'choke'. Self-discipline leads to self-control which creates self-confidence and produces the self-realization of your peak performance. It is the human power that allows us to overcome the odds, perform the incredible and accomplish the amazing.

Because peak performers are prepared to perform they have an unwavering belief they were meant for the key moments in their lives. They have the confidence and faith to take the risk to fail because they know they can perform. In fact, they believe it's their purpose and their mission to be their best when their best is needed. This makes them eager, excited and ready when their time comes. They enter their peak performance zone easily and execute what they believe they were meant to do. They perform to their peak on demand!

Develop your self-discipline, prepare yourself spiritually, mentally and physically and become a peak performer!

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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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LEADERS KNOW AND BELIEVE...

People are spirit, mind and body...Keeping it in that order is a priority.

Attitudes come from the spirit, the mind holds skills and knowledge and the body performs the actions.

Attitudes are more important than skills.

Skills can be taught when the attitudes are right.

Actions do speak louder than words.

People move in the direction of their dominant thoughts.

If you manage results, you'll be too late.

Managing attitudes is their job.

They have a higher purpose.

People are more important than things.

Character is more important than reputation.

They are always being watched and judged by those who don't want to learn, grow and improve, so they'll have an excuse not to.

The truth is always beyond what they can see.

They'll have to do the things they don't want to do, to get what they want.

They'll have to motivate and inspire people to do the things they don't want to do, to help them get what they want and become their best.

The truth is always the best information and communication tool.

Being present, paying attention and listening is a requirement.

Communicating openly, honestly and directly is the best policy.

Most people don't really want to be extraordinary but they also don't like the idea of being average.

The easy way will almost never produce the best results.

People won't always like you when you challenge them to be their best.

They'll have to make the hard decisions and act on them.

The lowest form of behavior they allow or accept is who they are as a leader.

They need to spend time with the people that need them the most, and that's probably not who they would naturally choose to spend it with.

Culture is the cumulative, pervasive or dominant attitude of the people they lead.

It's their job to help people be prepared to, and perform to, their best.

It's a strength to be humble, gracious and forgiving.

Forgiveness doesn't mean acceptance.

Leadership is an act of service, caring and love.

There is a higher power with a higher purpose.

By Mike Moore

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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

More about → PEOPLE FIRST LEADERSHIP

SALES LEADERSHIP TOOLS FOR PEAK PERFORMANCE

This article is for all the salespeople, sales managers and executives who've been trying for years to improve without using the best tools available to achieve their best results. It's time to take advantage of all the tools available even if they make you uncomfortable.

SALESPEOPLE

The best tools available to improve your sales communication, attitudes, skills and actions are video and audio of live interaction between you and real consumers. I'm not talking about video shoppers...I'm talking about live selling engagements between real shoppers and salespeople in real selling situations. 

Selling is a performing art...Like athletes, actors and musicians you need to use live video and audio to review the selling engagement with consumers.    This is the best way to view how you're communicating with consumers. It's like athletes watching game video, not video of practice. Oh, and they do that too, so both are valid, but the best results come from watching and hearing real live selling engagements. 

Viewing and listening to live selling engagements with consumers allows for self coaching by salespeople so they can improve more quickly.  It’s the best way to create and reinforce the proper intentions, attitudes, actions and skills that will enable sales professionals to serve consumers, making customers and increase sales. So why don't you use it...Comfort, cost or fear...All poor reasons to not challenge yourself to be your best. 

Salespeople, like athletes think they are doing one thing until they see it for themselves. Rapid behavioral changes takes place when we watch ourselves and bold, significant results are achieved. If a picture is worth a thousand words, live video and audio is worth million...literally!

We can continue to read, talk and listen about how to sell, we can video practice or we can add viewing our live performances and make the changes necessary to improve the profession of sales.  When we are viewing and listening to live engagements, the lectures, reading, and studying we do becomes more valuable and magnifies it's impact to create the best results.

Live video and audio is greatly different than mystery shoppers or roll playing, even though both are needed exercises, they are insufficient to produce peak performance. Mystery shopping and roll playing misses the key ingredient in communication and human interaction, the intentions of the people communicating. Mystery shoppers and roll playing find out if salespeople know the right information about their products, services and company. This can be also be accomplished by written or verbal quizzes and tests.  

When you view the interaction between people with the real intentions you experience in live selling situations, you'll see, hear and know how you are truly communicating, interacting and responding with them. Then you will know what you need to do to improve.  Without the intentions of both people being real in a conversation, negotiation or a selling situation, it's just practice and it's insufficient to become your very best. Mystery shoppers and roll players have no intentions of buying and salespeople aren’t selling.

For many years, I've been teaching that salespeople practice their profession on consumers.  Unfortunately, this is an obstacle to rapid self-improvement unless it can be reviewed and used to improve.  If you don’t want to improve enough take responsibility, mature as a sales professional and use the best tools available, you are doomed to continue without ever achieving your best results.

I firmly believe we haven’t seen the best of the profession of selling but can if we are willing to add these tools to the lectures, reading and training we've used in the past.

SALES MANAGERS

The time has come to stop worrying about how good your salespeople are and start finding out.  Live video coaching will expose what you may be afraid of but you can’t change and begin to improve until you find out. It is time to acknowledge that we need to grow up and begin being the professionals we profess to be.

The idea that we have tools to improve at our disposal and haven’t utilized them, is a shame. That said, let’s not look back but begin now to use live video and audio to coach and improve the relationship between consumers and salespeople.

I know many sales managers who have resisted using these tools and can only wonder what they are afraid of.  Nothing we do out of fear will ever be a best practice.  In coming years, sales managers will use live video and audio to stay informed and coach their salespeople as a standard business practice.

Live video and audio is not intended to be a punitive tool but does create accountability.  It is a coaching and self-improvement tool.  Coaches have to be informed and pay attention to be effective. Live video with audio is the best way to pay attention.  You can’t coach what you’re unaware of.   As an accountability tool, salespeople in all selling environments, will be less likely to give less than their best effort to consumers when they know they are performing live all the time. A salesperson giving consumers their best effort is part of the maturation and growing process of the profession of sales.

EXECUTIVES

When executives accept that decades of doing business with the intention to make sales has broken the relationship between consumers and salespeople, then they need to take responsibility for this broken relationship and lead their business with a new intention.

It is time to start making customers, not sales, and live video and audio is the best tool to make sure this new intention is implemented.  

Too many years of talk and not enough action, has left the consumer believing businesses don’t care about them.

Executives have made too many decisions about how to operate their business and make profits without considering how it would affect their salespeople's communication with consumers and ultimately how this would effect their business, revenue and profits.

Most executives believe that people are the driving force to improve their business and live video, audio and new intentions will also energize  salespeople. Live video and audio can implement the intention to make customers, not just sales and result in increased sales, lower costs, increased profits and sustainable growth.

You wouldn’t run a business that depended on athletes peak performance without video for coaching and improvement. Don’t invest and risk your company’s money without using the best tools to insure peak performance from your salespeople.

PEAK PERFORMANCE

Live audio and video coaching should start with salespeople, then be available to the sales manager, and finally to executive management in a company. Teaching people how to use live video and audio during the implementation is key.

Keeping the focus on the self-improvement is the most important element in producing significant results.

Live audio and video coaching should never be punitive or feel as though big brother is watching.  Starting with salespeople allows them to quickly learn how valuable seeing and hearing themselves in real situations can be.  They even begin to use the information learned to build relationships in their follow-up with consumers.

After the salespeople become comfortable, learn to self coach and experience rapid improvements, then sales management can begin using the audio and video as a teaching and coaching tool. Seeing, hearing and knowing what is happen between their salespeople and consumers is the best information to develop the company's sales strategy and how to inspire, motivate and manage each salesperson.

Executives are the last to view and listen. This allows them to know how their salespeople are doing, see the improvements, build their confidence and understand why sales are increasing. This allows executives to have a better understanding of their customers and how best to market to them as well. Constant improvement and peak performance has many leadership benefits to the company.

Without live audio and video, a commitment by everyone to be their best by using the every tool available, we will continue to manage sales in the dark and suffer the consequences of poor sales communication and interaction with consumers.

It is time to use the best tools and begin to experience the best of the profession of sales!

By Mike Moore

More about → SALES LEADERSHIP TOOLS FOR PEAK PERFORMANCE