Mary E. Marshall's Blog, page 39

The Outside Perspective

As we get back to work after the long Labor Day weekend, and a glorious summer, (at least here in Seattle), I got to thinking about why we don’t always see what’s right in front of us. I had two similar conversations with clients this week who were somewhat dumbfounded when I asked a few questions to get them to see what was happening right in front of them, but they were blind to. I gave them the view from my perspective and it completely changed the “filter” they had on the subject. Questioning their answers led to better answers.

This is what is so valuable about getting an outside perspective in business. It allows us to see things from a different viewpoint, or in some cases, see something we didn’t even see at all. As a leader, it’s imperative that you have a resource for this. Larger companies have a Board of Directors who question your perspective, give input on strategic direction, and act as guardians of the company, and therefore the shareholders. (Yes, I know this line is often blurred…). In smaller companies it is more typical to have an Advisory Board that has no real authority but does provide that outside perspective and sounding board for the leader or leadership team to use as a resource. Advisory Board opinions are non-binding and the members have no stake in the enterprise so you are likely to get unfiltered advice, albeit you are still “paying them to play.”

Truly unfiltered and “free” perspectives can be had by joining a peer advisory group of some sort. These are groups of your peers, other CEOs or Senior Executives that join a confidential group to get differing viewpoints from their peers. These can be formal or informal groups whose sole purpose is to help each leader become better at what they do and grow their company and their people. Most charge a fee and it varies depending upon the level of support you are getting. So although members pay to belong to a group, you are not paying them, which frees up their opinions. Large and small companies alike can benefit from “different” thinking. Remember that old saying that the problem can’t be solved with the same level of thinking that got you into the mess in the first place? That’s what peer advisory does for you.

I teach a class for the Small Business Administration through Interise for small businesses who want to grow and even in this classroom setting, peer learning happens. Students often think “they were the only one” with this problem or issue and low and behold, regardless of industry or education level, they are not alone. So next time you think about your business, your strategic plan, or a solution you are sure is a winner, think about the value of that outside perspective. It’s worth investing in.

The post The Outside Perspective appeared first on Mary Marshall // CEO Coach.

What Successful Companies Have in Common

At the end of the day, the successful companies have one thing in common, an outstanding business culture that promotes the success of the individuals working there. When this is in place a company can create great products and provide excellent service to its customers. Many might argue that it’s so much more than culture and they are right. However, if you don’t start with the culture, nothing else you do will work. It’s the foundation. You can layer on the best sales people, incent them well, and they will leave if the culture doesn’t provide the environment they are looking for.

You can spend all the time and money you want on training programs. None of it will work if the culture, or foundation, of the company is not solid enough to support growth. How do you know if a company has a great culture? Employees will actually refer their friends to come work there. They don’t hate their jobs and they don’t make anonymous posts on websites for disgruntled employees. These companies are fun, happy places to work that value the strengths everyone has and actually care about not only the well-being of their employees AND their customers. These cultures foster growth in individuals, which in turn spurs revenue growth.

Employees and customers are wired the same way, and most want 4 things at work according to Tom Rath, author of Strengthsfinder 2.0:

Trust
Compassion
Stability
Hope

When these needs are met, employees are more than happy to meet the needs of the customers. Remember that as humans, we all do things for our own reasons, not the reasons of others, so we must have a sense of meaning and fulfillment that aligns with our values. Since this applies to all employees, it means that sales and customer service people will be at their best when these basics are an integral part of the culture.

Additionally, when customers know that a company has a positive work environment and supportive culture, they will gravitate towards its products and services first.

All things being equal, our humanity urges us to buy from those who are like us. Shared values matter.

In today’s world of anonymous technological hook-ups, outstanding sales executives and top notch customer service are even MORE important than ever. To insure your company is providing these to your customers, step back and take some time to reflect on your company’s culture and values. You may find that shoring up your foundation is the best move you can make to improve your sales and overall success.

The post What Successful Companies Have in Common appeared first on Mary Marshall // CEO Coach.

Endurance – Anything is Possible, One Moment at a Time

I had a conversation this weekend with my son who is currently a Peace Corps volunteer in Guyana in the Amazon rain forest.  He lives in a small village in the north of the country and works at the only health clinic serving the mining villages in the area. After having worked through high school and college at a fairly rigorous pace with a pre-med focus, life was fairly structured for my Eagle Scout son. He decided he wanted a “life experience” before going to medical school, so the Peace Corps was his choice.

After 5 months in country, he is struggling with a life that is so different from what he knows – a different culture with different values. The Peace Corps has “very vague” guidelines of what he is supposed to do and he is just generally wondering what the heck he is doing some or most days.  However, after a recent trip to the city of Georgetown and the Peace Corp offices, he happened upon a book by a famous mountain climber who also happened to have been a Peace Corp Volunteer.  He started reading and found a passage that essentially said while this guy was climbing in situations that most of us wouldn’t even dream of, and wanting to give up, he discovered that focusing on the moment was the only way he could make it through. If he thought about the next two days or the next 5000 feet, he would deem it impossible. If he thought about the moment he was in, the next few minutes or hours, he knew he could do that. So he stopped focusing on the goal and instead concentrated on the moment right in front of him. And that’s how he scaled the mountains.

My son decided it was exactly the prescription for him. Instead of thinking about how in the world he would make it for another two years and what he was supposed to accomplish in that time, he decided to focus on one day at a time. He can deal with each day and make the best of it instead of focusing on the “two more years and I must achieve something” in the back of his mind. He found it much easier to go with the flow and actually enjoy each moment.

The reason I share this story is that in business, we often face such monumental tasks, challenges, competitors, and insurmountable objects that we feel like quitting. So rather than focus on how long it might take to get something done, the impossibility of the task, the enormity of the stakes or project at hand, perhaps the answer is to just focus on today, this moment, and what you are doing right now. If we look back at our lives, we know we can and have made it though many, many difficult moments. And we made it through, one moment at a time to achieve the goal or task and get to where we are today.

photo credit: jfdervin via photopin cc

The post Endurance – Anything is Possible, One Moment at a Time appeared first on Mary Marshall // CEO Coach.

Past Performance DOES Predict Future Behavior – And it Depends a LOT on Culture

I saw this post today with alarm as it’s completely counter to what I have always believed. As I read more of the article, I realized the author, Lou Adler, and I are actually probably in agreement, just using different ways and words to describe it.

Adler says that people can perform differently in identical situations, therefore past behavior does not predict future performance. However, I would say that the situation, workplaces in this case, are never identical. All cultures and people are a little different. What predicts future performance is how someone has “behaved” in a similar set of circumstances. You aren’t looking at their skill set necessarily, you are looking at their ability to perform in a certain subset of conditions.

Let’s say that someone has a track record of managing several large projects, delivering them on time, and driving results for the company. My next questions are:

What was that company like?
What was the culture?
What was this person’s authority structure like both above and below?
What resources did they have?

Once you know these answers you can create behavioral questions based on what you know the current or “new” company to be. Behavioral-based questions are simply asking a person about the choices they made in “identical circumstances” and clarifying how they performed and what exactly they did. It avoids the hypothetical because that is meaningless anyway – it’s not real. You want real world examples of how someone managed in ambiguity, in the absence of resources, with a dictatorial boss, etc. You want them to describe how their best boss managed them and why that was important. You want them to describe the best team they have been on and what the results were and why that made their performance better. Just having someone tell you what they accomplished and expecting that to magically show up at a completely new company is fantasy. Adler and I agree on this.

I expect people to come with the skills I’m looking for. Those should have been screened and verified and in the interview you are simply double-checking on those. As a leader conducting an interview, most of your time should be spent asking about values, and asking behavioral-based questions that are looking for a match to the companies values. You are looking for “why” a candidate does what they do, not “what” they do. The more you understand the “why,” the better you will be able to determine whether or not they will be a good fit in the new company.

So don’t throw out the behavioral-based questions, just make them focused on culture, values and the ability to operate in the environment that you are interviewing for. There will be something in their past that will predict the future for you – but YOU have to ask the right question. As I said in my recent blog, Interviewing the Introvert, it’s about the interviewer’s ability to ask the right questions, and past performance in the identical situation will predict future behavior.

The post Past Performance DOES Predict Future Behavior – And it Depends a LOT on Culture appeared first on Mary Marshall // CEO Coach.

Culture Breakers and Culture Makers

Look no further than your daily paper to be reminded of leadership missteps, especially in the form of an offhand comment or email. Recently in The Seattle Times Boeing CEO James McNerney said he won’t retire because “the heart will still be beating, the employees will still be cowering, “and the damage was done. This is what I call a “Culture Breaker.” If you want a productive culture, comments like this will never get you there, and in fact, will take you so far off track that it feels like climbing Mt. Everest to get back. On the other hand, you could actually call it a Culture Maker in Boeing’s case because it is reflective of how the CEO really feels and is just the latest in a long series of “misspoken” words, phrases or outright misdirects the company has had. It’s simply reinforcing the culture the leadership subscribes to.

Recently, I also learned of a small manufacturer that pulled a real business Culture Breaker moment with an email that the CEO sent out to a group of managers. The CEO had been in talks with a couple of key employees about a possible buy out and an offer was made. Rather than meet in private with the key employees, the CEO chose to respond in an email and copy all senior management and some other employees of the firm. The email was a resounding “hell no” to the offer and a slap down to those employees who had made it, although previously signals had been pointing to an agreement. The reason stated by the CEO to include the rest of the staff was to provide some sort of instructive moment. Well it was certainly instructive of a Culture Breaker moment.

People/Employees will only tolerate so much disconnect between their own values, the stated values of the company, and the lived values of the leadership. At some point, they will say, enough is enough and I’m going to go where I’m appreciated and feel as though what I do matters. Being called “cowering” or publicly embarrassed in an email does not make employees feel valued and therefore they will be less productive. However, these moments certainly scream the real values of the company and the leadership.

Unfortunately, it only takes a short second to undo positive, productive momentum, as both of these incidents show. As a leader, the moment you speak or act before you think through the consequences, you are often disclosing your real thoughts or intentions. It happens, we’re all human. However, if it’s not what you really meant to convey, apologize and see what you can do to return to “Culture Making” moments. They are harder to create, however, they lead your team and your company toward productivity and a healthy, happy work place. Next time you think about leadership moves, be sure they are Culture Makers building toward the culture you intend to have.

The post Culture Breakers and Culture Makers appeared first on Mary Marshall // CEO Coach.

Leadership Puzzler: Have You Made a Bad Sales Hire?

I have worked with so many entrepreneurs who had trouble hiring salespeople that I had difficulty picking which example to use for the puzzler! I decided to use the one that most everyone can relate to.

This was a services company that had struggled for years to identify and hire a decent Sales Executive. The company was small, doing about $8M, and most of the sales came through the owner/entrepreneur. He had relationships with all the clients from a previous company that he worked for and was not only very talented at sales, but took it for granted. He assumed everyone was like him.

By the time I started working with him, he had a string of 4 sales mis-hires. As I’ve mentioned before, a mis-hire costs the company about 3 times the annual salary in both soft and hard costs so you can understand his frustration. Plus the customers were losing faith in his hiring ability and weren’t really open to working with anyone other than him. Therefore, he became the constraint to the growth of his own company. It could only grow as much as he was willing to work and do all the sales. Additionally, he was not building any value in the company because as the single salesperson, no one would be interested in purchasing it if he was going to retire. You now see his dilemma.

So we looked at who he had hired and what were the common denominators, (if any). What we found was that 3 of the 4 hires were excellent conversationalists, from the industry and had good references – just not a proven track record of sales. The fourth person was just a bad cultural fit as well as lacking some skills so we didn’t focus on that one. I asked about the interview process and it consisted of him and one other person in the company doing the interviews. They had also used a recruiter for one of the hires as well so the recruiter also interviewed. Other than the lack of proven track record of sales, I could find no commonalities. So I asked the owner to interview me as if I were applying for the job. I quickly spotted the problem. He was a terrible interviewer. As good as he was at sales, he was terrible at interviewing and did all the talking. He didn’t ask any behavioral-based questions about past performance at all. Therefore, the 3 candidates only had to listen, BS a little, and they had a job. He couldn’t understand how they all seemed “great” in the interview but terrible in the field.

So we switched roles and I asked him about his sales process, his largest order, a lost deal, his favorite client, etc. I found out exactly how he sold. So we created some interview questions – some value-based, and some specifically around the “closing” performance – which the 3 failed candidates lacked. We brought in 5 candidates, narrowed it down to 2, and made an offer to a great candidate who is still there today. I did the interviewing of the first 3 candidates. He took over from there after he learned the process.

Bottom line, don’t let your best salesperson, (or the entrepreneur), hire the salespeople without a defined process and behavioral-based questions for the traits required for success at your company. It’s not just about a great personality, there are 4 key characteristics: great conversationalist and ability to gain trust; assess the customer’s need; ask for the order and follow-up. Don’t miss any of those 4 or you’ll have a failed hire and wonder what happened!

photo credit: FutUndBeidl via photopin cc

The post Leadership Puzzler: Have You Made a Bad Sales Hire? appeared first on Mary Marshall // CEO Coach.

What Makes a Great Sales Executive?

This could be, (and in many ways already has been), a never ending debate, but in my mind, it comes down to a few critical characteristics.

First, the person must be a great conversationalist. This means the salesperson, (likely an extrovert), is:

 

Comfortable engaging others in conversation with authenticity.
Can get to know someone and truly try to determine what their needs might be.
Is adept at questioning.
Is genuinely interested in the person they are speaking with.

These people have a knack for gaining the trust of others. They make people feel heard.

The truly great salesperson never makes anyone feel sold. We all have a story of buying something and regretting it as soon as we got home and having the feeling “we were had.” This experience comes from working with a salesperson who wasn’t great. He or she was good enough to get you to buy, but they left a “residue” and you will likely never refer a customer to them, let alone shop there again. They were concerned about themselves and the sale, not you.

The second characteristic of the great sales executive is the ability to make an assessment. Through their questioning and conversational skills, they are able to assess the needs of the customer fairly quickly and determine if their product or service is a match and explain why. This is not the person that rattles off the features and benefits like they are reading a menu. This is someone who really understands what the customer is looking for, (the need), and making the determination, (or not), that they can solve it. The best salespeople are those who know when they aren’t a match and refer you to someone who is. They never fear doing this because they know that in the end, it will come back to them in spades. Sort of like paying it forward.

The third trait that great sales executives have is the ability to “ask” for the order or close the deal. This is where a lot salespeople fail. They get so involved in the conversation, creating rapport and being in love with their solution, they forget to ask for the order. The other reason they don’t ask is that they are afraid of rejection or failure. So if they don’t ask, they can’t be rejected. They leave the sales call and hope the customer calls them. In most cases the customer won’t call. They need to be asked to the dance. You can’t expect them to close the deal for you. The only exception to this is the sleazy sales person who conjures up a worst case scenario or scares the heck out of a customer so they beg to buy so that something terrible doesn’t happen. That is not authentic selling, it’s gimmicks and tricks.

The last trait of the great sales person is follow-through. If you don’t follow-up with the customer to make sure they got what they wanted and are happy, you miss a huge opportunity to create a lasting relationship with that customer and a potential referral source. The best sales executives work off referrals alone after they’ve been at it a few years. The great sales exec is never afraid to fix a problem because they’ve diagnosed the need and want to make sure they were correct. They want happy customers.

Think about all the sales people you’ve dealt with over time. What made the good ones stand out for you? I’ll bet they had most, if not all of the characteristics identified here so next time you hire for sales, remember to interview for ALL 4 of these critical traits.

The post What Makes a Great Sales Executive? appeared first on Mary Marshall // CEO Coach.

Interviewing the Introvert

You may have heard of author Susan Cain and her book, “Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking.” The book has been extremely successful and has clearly resonated with many people. It has many implications for the workforce, and Susan has now addressed one of them in her recent TED talk, “Reconstructing the Job Interview.” She discusses the advantage that extroverts enjoy in the current results-oriented interview process and goes even further to say that, “The modern-day interview is mostly designed to hire narcissists.” This might seem somewhat harsh, but it’s not far from the truth. However, I would argue that if anyone is still using this process for hiring, they are miles behind where they should be, and where behavioral-based interviewing has taken us. This is a process that is good for both the introvert and the extrovert.

The problem with a lot of interviewing, (and here is where she and I agree), is that there really isn’t a process. It is actually more of a “beauty contest” and therefore the extrovert has the edge because they are skilled at conversation and know how to engage. The introvert does not have the same skills, and interviewers aren’t necessarily trained at interviewing and tend to go with those who make it easy to engage in conversation – advantage extrovert.

However, as I’ve discussed in my book and in multiple blogs, if you consistently follow a process, you will find the right fit for the job, introvert or extrovert. That’s where behavioral-based interviewing comes in. It’s based on the “things, actions, experiences” that the candidate has had and their ability to translate those into the skills or strengths required for the new position. Identifying a candidate’s strengths can ONLY be done by assessing past experience. An extrovert will wax on about all their successes, but when you press about specifics, it might be a different story. An introvert, however, when thoughtfully questioned, will likely have a much more solid story around a situation and what it took to get the task or project accomplished.

The key is to have identified what strengths are required for success in the position. Next, develop a series of questions that look for these strengths e.g.:

Tell me about a time when you had to lead a project.
How did that go?
What do you think led to success?
How did you manage people?
How did you handle obstacles?
Tell me about a specific roadblock.
What would you do differently next time?

Once you identify their strengths, you continue to drill down until you are sure you have the answer you need to make a decision about this person. An introvert can answer questions, sometimes they just have difficulty starting or engaging in conversations that are fast-paced and intense. But unless you are hiring for a position where those strengths are critical, YOUR job as the interviewer is to be the extrovert and to ask the right questions.

As interviewers, we have to really be objective. It’s not about how much we like the person, (this is where extroverts have the edge, they want to be liked), it’s about whether or not they can do the job. Of course, you want to take into consideration the “likeability” of the candidate, but it comes second to strengths for the position. And always, hire for cultural fit. Great strengths with the wrong culture fit will always lead to a mis-hire. These cost about 3 times the annual salary to the company so it’s important to interview well, be thorough, and take your time. A good interview is as much dependent upon the interviewer as the interviewee.

The post Interviewing the Introvert appeared first on Mary Marshall // CEO Coach.

And So Goes the Culture…

In my approach to business an organization’s culture is absolutely critical. I’ve written multiple blogs about it, and talked about how to create a great culture in my book, Putting Together the Entrepreneurial Puzzle, (in Chapter 2, “Intentional Culture”). Lately I have started wondering how a company gets started down a path toward extraordinary culture, dysfunctional culture, or just an ordinary culture. What I’ve come up with is that it starts with one action, one statement or one intent and it’s not always as conscious, positive or empowering as one would hope.

Think about the so-called “Arab Spring,” which was inspiring and brought hope to so many. Unfortunately, it also showed that without strong support and infrastructure, an idea, belief, or even vision could be brought down by those who had another idea and ultimately, more power - be it good or bad.

People will follow when a good idea, ideal or movement gets started. They will also follow when a bad one gets started for a variety of reasons – hopelessness and hopefulness are among them – as well as many others. Remember that people do things for their reasons, not ours. The culture at Zappos has been written about many times as an example of a great culture that inspires great performance in the employees and therefore for the company. Tony Hsieh is widely credited for setting the tone and inspiring the great performance that is in actuality largely regulated by the employees themselves. Because the Zappos’ culture was so strong and such a contribution to the successful performance of the company, when they were purchased, the culture remained intact and performance continues to be above average for similar companies. So in this case the leader set the tone and let the employees carry it out, however he continued to inspire and guide.

My point is that if you’ve ever watched a herd of animals move, if the leader moves, they all do. So eyes are always on the leader to provide the “context” for the action, movement or directional change. Employees are always watching for clues as the directional change can happen from one day to the next. If the changes are too great or too often, employees hunker down and hope it all stops. Ultimately they will leave when the pain of staying in the situation is greater than the pain of finding something new.

As the leader, it’s important to take a step back and realize that your actions, or inaction have a dramatic effect on your “herd,” so it’s important to be intentional about it. And it’s critical to understand that your actions become the culture as quickly as you can blink. People are very smart, very observant, and will rise to the occasion to be a part of something inspirational and meaningful. They will do the minimal to get by when the situation is otherwise. Even worse, they may join in the dysfunction because it has become sanctioned.

Take a look around and see what’s going on in your organization. What one action can you do to change or encourage the right behavior to support extraordinary performance? The herd will follow.

The post And So Goes the Culture… appeared first on Mary Marshall // CEO Coach.

Does Passion Lead to Success?

According to a July 8th article in Forbes passion actually leads to failure. This is news to me because some of my most passionate entrepreneurial clients are quite successful. And, ahem, Steve Jobs was certainly considered a “passionate” leader, at least about the innovation and design of Apple’s products. However, I think the author Adam Hartung may be on to something, just not as generic as “passion leads to failure.”

The author cites two reasons that businesses fail and used the announcement this week of the closing of Crumbs Bake Shop as an example to prove his point. The owners were passionate about cupcakes and failed to see that eventually the desire or market for cupcakes would become saturated and the “fad” would die out, leaving them high and dry. In this particular case he is correct. It looks like passion was blinding and contributed to the failure of the business.

However, he doesn’t really connect the dots that it’s not the fact that the owners were “passionate” about cupcakes and therefore that passion should lead them to success. Passion coupled with good business practices is what leads to success, not passion alone. Look at all the brilliant inventors that were passionate about their ideas, and some of them were indeed very good ideas, but passion alone didn’t get the job done. His premise that “passion will lead to success through hard work, etc.” is a myth that is only half true. Passion can get an entrepreneurial business over the hard times and through to success. Without it, the first bump in the road will likely put them out of business. However, I do agree with him that without good business acumen, systems, support, resources and a solid business plan, passion will not get you to the goal line.

Leaders who have passion about a company’s mission inspire teams to achieve goals and be successful. Leaders who do not have passion, don’t inspire much. CEOs of large organizations rarely have “passion” about the product or service, but they certainly have passion about getting a return for their shareholders, because if they don’t, they’re out.

Hartung’s second point that you need to be able to spot trends goes along with the business acumen. A good marketing strategy should be anticipating the future and predicting and measuring trends with enough time for the business to adjust. Any business based on one product is certainly at a higher risk unless there is something irreplaceable about the product. Crumbs Bake Shop was fairly obviously vulnerable because cupcakes are certainly not unique, as any mother will tell you. Spotting trends, seeing what the future holds, and looking forward are keys to any sustainable business success. Today’s hit is tomorrow’s has been so development of new products or services to meet the needs of customers is key. Remember the frog who sits in the pot while the water is heated up will eventually die because he does not notice the contrast. However, he would jump out of a boiling pot the minute his feet hit the water. A key takeaway from this article is a good reminder to find out what’s heating up in your business that you haven’t noticed before you reach the boiling point and miss the changing landscape like Crumbs Bake Shop did.

photo credit: aussiegall via photopin cc

The post Does Passion Lead to Success? appeared first on Mary Marshall // CEO Coach.