Sales tips, leadership communication skills insight and more from Steve Giglio, sales training professional for more than 25 years.

Giving Thanks at Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!

With so much occurring in our world today, I am finding that this is a special year to take stock for all the things for which I am thankful. Call it putting the “thanks” back in Thanksgiving.

Most mornings begin for me with giving thanks for twenty things in my life that I’m grateful for. I do this to set my energy for the day, try it!

This process alters my “come-from” each morning. Rather than focusing on things I’m concerned about, I shift my focus to what I’m grateful for.

Here’s my Grateful List for today:

  • My health
  • My family’s health
  • Ellen’s love
  • My career
  • My friends who stand by me and support me
  • Constantly learning
  • Growing with clients
  • The honor of shaping executive’s behavior
  • Laughing and learning simultaneously
  • Our vacations
  • My clients candor
  • My clients trust in my coaching
  • My business associates that streamlined my business
  • My coaches that keep me clear of mind
  • My trainer who keeps me fit
  • Being referred by clients
  • Acknowledgement from my blogging efforts
  • Setting and keeping my goals in life
  • Listening without any bias
  • Being approachable and curious with people

In keeping with the season, take a few minutes and list the things in your life for which you are grateful. I bet you will easily come up with more than 20. It’s a great way to celebrate life and re-engage with the world around you.

Oh…one last one for me…I’m truly grateful that you have taken the time to read this post. Happy Thanksgiving!

Be Smart: Plan NOW for 2016!

Smart companies look to the future long before it arrives. Now is the time to do that for 2016.

I have the unique pleasure of coaching forward-thinking CEOs and COOs as they lead their respective organizations. They are seizing this time of the year to ultra-focus on 2016. We are discussing how to marshal their teams to be consummately effective and strategic in there business development/selling efforts. Are you having those conversations yet?

At this time of year, it’s important to remember and heed the great selling adage: “Nothing happens in life until someone sells something to someone.” Leaders who know this, act on it with expedience. They realize they need to have their management teams as focused on 2016 as they are, it takes a village.

Planning Questions to Ask for 2016

Planning for the new year starts with asking some key questions. Answer these questions with your leadership teams to gain a clear picture of where they are, and where they need to be in 2016.

  • Where are we now relative to our competitive set?
  • What culture must we forge in 2016?
  • How effect have we been in our internal communication efforts?/What must we strengthen?
  • What must we measure to produce the goals we’ve established?
  • How will we remain a team throughout 2016?
  • What must our constituents embrace with our value propositions?

There is nothing more productive than talking through these important questions and establishing tactical action plans to achieve them. It’s not too late…start now to get a jump on 2016. Make it a great year by being in control and focused. It makes a big difference!

What’s your #1 goal for 2016? Share it in the comments below. Thanks! 

Five Steps for Introducing Yourself

number-five-redYou might be surprised to realize that how you introduce yourself makes a big difference with people. In my coaching assignments, I’ve observed executives either going through the motions introducing themselves to people/clients or meaning it and linking their introduction to the excitement of the meeting.

Setting the Tone

As we’ve spoken about before; people buy people first, product second. What this means during one’s introduction is that HOW you introduce yourself and WHY you’re jazzed to be there can make all the difference in the world. You get to set the “tone” for the meeting.

That’s why its important. Lets break this down a bit.

Five Steps for Introducing Yourself

Step #1: Do your homework
Know who’s attending the meeting. Having a little knowledge about who you are introducing yourself to will give you confidence in your initial contact with them.

Step #2: Understand why is the meeting important to the attendees
Yes, be clear on the importance of the meeting to you but, simultaneously know what’s important to your attendees. What’s keeping them up at night? What are their challenges?

Step #3: Find the Value for Them
Genuinely link the value of the meeting for yourself. Hint: If you’re not excited about it, your attendees won’t be either.

Step #4: Be Clear and Direct
Write out your introduction to be confident and clear. Name, background, relationship to the subject at hand and why your excited to part of the meeting. Remember, you are setting the tone and you are establishing a level of trust right from the start.

Step #5: Be Engaging
Deliver it like you mean it, as a host in a welcoming fashion. It makes a difference and credentials you as a professional. Sure, maybe they aren’t completely engaged yet but if YOU aren’t, you have no chance of succeeding in your encounter with them.

Try these steps at the next meeting you host. Let me know how it goes!

Eight Tips for Calming Warring Teams

“I’ve got to have these two teams work together in harmony but, they’re at each other’s throats now!”

While companies strive for internal harmony among associates, often that’s not realty.  Teams feeling territorial, threatened or jealous take aim at the source of this stress which could be another team. And a power battle ensues.

As a leader, it’s your job to mollify the teams and get them focused on the whole, not just their area. But how do you do that?  I’m glad you asked…

Here are eight essential steps for calming warring teams:

1. Know the compelling challenge

Too often leaders will put their teams together to brainstorm what needs to get fixed. Generally, this is done as a band-aid that often backfires. You must know the core issue that is bifurcating your teams.

2. Know the politics involved

There are always politics. It’s important to read the tea leaves on who is doing what to whom. Who is the leader? Who is the muck-raker? If you can neutralize their efforts, you have made great strides.

3. Meet with each team leader

You do this to establish trust and a clear understanding of their “side” of the issue. This communicates a nice level of empathy and respect. And give you some inside information to stem the tide of confrontation.

4. Is integration possible?

This is not an easy question to ask, but ask it you must. You’ve got to honest with yourself and see the possibility before you can facilitate it in this plenary session. If these teams are just not going to blend well together, find another way to impact the way they work with each other.

5. Prioritize the issues

You won’t solve all the issues at once. So, which of them are having the greatest impact on the teams involved and preventing collaboration. Address those first. As you move further down the list, others may be willing to take on the smaller issues.

6. Determine what issues need to be vented

Politically through this diligence you’ll discover what issues need to be vented to clear the way to a new normal

7. Present clear behaviors that each team must accept

A debate is healthy provided each team understands the ground rules for successful communication. Rule #1: Listen without bias. Rule #2: Do not interrupt someone. Rule #3: Stay open to new ideas and trust each other.

8. Create the “New Normal” with joint authorship

Each team member wants to feel they made a difference and contributed  to the solution. Nothing works better than for each side to co-author how they will operate going forward. Once they realize that they’ve created it, they’ll own it. LET THEM. It’s their show, not yours. Co-authoring is a great action to facilitate to show the entire team how concerned you are for their buy-in and homeostasis.

Is there a ninth…or tenth…tip that has worked for you? Let me know in the comments. Thanks!

 

Investors Need Love Too

Q4 is often a quarter for investor meetings hosted by Private Equity firms. The good ones understand the importance of presenting their transformative actions in a relational, clear fashion. The bad ones go through the motions without taking the right level of responsibility for what they generated and especially, what they didn’t generate.

Deliver Results with Confidence

Committed PE firms take the time to carefully engineer their results in such a way that investors understand not only the mathematics behind their MOI (multiple on investment), but also the care they took in delivering their news from their investor’s frame of reference, not their own. The best PE firms also take the delivery of their annual report card as seriously as the content they have created. They realize the important adage: “People buy people first, product second.”

It’s Not Just About the Math

I’ve had the pleasure of coaching many Private Equity executives and CEOs in their delivery of their core messages. Being conversational and confident is mission critical here. What you say is important but, how you say it may be even more so. An investor once shared with me how important he felt delivery was.

“I expect the mathematics to be correct. What I look for now is how at ease the team is in their delivery of their information. If they are comfortable in front of me (and 100 other investors), then I’m confident that their comportment inside the “engine-room” of their portfolio companies will drive the team effort required to profitably scale them.”

Be a Master Presenter

Therefore, every time you and your organization has an important presentation to deliver, be impeccable with your content but also be responsible in your mastery of the delivery required to confidently and clearly deliver your message.

What’s your biggest challenge as you prepared to deliver 2016 recommendations? Let me know below in the comments. 

Teach Your Children Well

Hear Ye, Hear Ye…Don’t wait until an executive MUST be coached, shape them early and well.

As a coach, I believe everyone is a candidate for executive coaching, from associates/managers to managing directors/vice presidents to “C” suite executives. Everyone can develop and transform their behavior to fully succeed and prosper in business. But if you wait until they “need” coaching, it could be too late. The longer an organization waits the potentially longer the transformation process may take.

The Good Get Better

Noticing an associate/manager with high potential and giving them the gift of coaching demonstrably affects their behavior and, in turn, your success in business. Your direct report grows and, as an organizational leader, you’ve shaped their ability to comport themselves as you desire.

Bringing in a coach gives you the opportunity to gain a different perspective. Through the coach’s trained eyes, you will understand HOW your direct reports approach their work, what their values are and what they say their developmental gaps are that are dear to them. It’s a lot of information they might never divulge to you.

Leaders Connect

Providing leadership coaching to your directs essentially strengthens your connection with them because of the investment you’ve made in their careers. The coaching covenant speaks volumes about your values as a leader, your commitment to high potential people and a collegial environment.

Get started today.

Great Leaders Listen…But to Who?

I often coach new leaders to listen as though their life depends on it. But to who? Not everyone can provide valuable input, right? Perhaps not but, there are some key groups to whom you should pay special attention. Listening comes in many forms. You’ve got to listen to your Board, your direct reports AND their direct reports and a host of other groups, collectively they will make or break your leadership.

Your Board

When I say listen to your Board, I mean understanding their goals for your organization and what is important to them. What is their legacy going to be? How do you fit into that? Communicating that you understand and respect this affirms a Board member and you get to shape their involvement in the organization, as they feel a nice degree of authorship from your alignment with them.

Your Direct Reports

Naturally listening to your direct reports is essential. You will come to understand their POV and how they see shaping your organization from their position. This gives you a great window into how to contribute to their growth and development. Check in with your directs regularly and lead with questions that give them an opportunity to let you know how things are. You’ll learn a lot and not just their input/insight but, how much they are paying attention “out there.” Those who are truly aligned with the collective goals will have much to say versus those who are “calling it in.”

THEIR Direct Reports

How often to you have meaningful discussion with those in the trenches? As you skip down to your direct’s staff you gain an important perspective. You get a window into how your executive team is leading and contributing to their respective teams. This is essential work. It presents you as an inclusive leader versus an arms-length leader. It also lets their superiors know that YOU value their directs’ input so, they better value it too!

People know when you are removed from them and when you are connected to them. Make sure its the latter.

Mastering alignment with each group drives your acceptance on a personal level, professional level and coach level.

You Don’t Get a Free Pass

football-5-1186483-639x416In our instant access, instant disclosure world, it’s important to bear in mind that as a leader you don’t get a free pass on inappropriate behavior.

What you get is a write up in the National Inquirer that you lost your cool. Of course, I don’t mean this literally, I mean it figuratively. But the point is that you will have shone a light on your bad behavior and lots of people will notice.

Remember Tom Hanks’s famous line in the movie “A League Of Their Own”… “There’s no crying in baseball!” Well, there’s no aberrant behavior that come from emotions in business. Being emotional, and making rash decisions based on those emotions, gives you a scarlet letter you don’t need. It says to people you’re not as stable as they thought you were.

Practice Patience

An example of what I mean is making a personnel decision after being provoked to do so. Rumor disguised as information may come your way and you quickly react, thinking that that is what a good leader does. No, it isn’t.

To neutralize this behavior, it’s important to have forebearance, meaning having patient restraint when provoked. I often coach leaders to catch their emotional moments and substitute the emotion with foerbearance and an illustration of a higher level of groundedness than the issue merits.

Keep Your Cool to Win

Think of an NFL Quarterback. Those who lose their cool, who overreact to what’s happening instead of anticipating it, those who get flustered when things don’t go their way…well, you won’t see them in the Hall of Fame any time soon (or ever!). But those who maintain a steady composure, work the problem at hand instead of fretting about it and keep their emotions in check, you’re likely to see one or more championship rings on their fingers before their career winds down.

Act calmly and appropriately. Because remember…the Inquirer is always watching!

New Leaders…Stay Insecure For a While

The opportunity has arrived! You’ve been anointed as the heir apparent. Congratulations…you are now the boss. You can start telling everyone what to do.
NO! Keep your humility, drop the swagger… I said drop it! Keep a clear head as you proceed.

Lead First…Delegate Later

Sorry to be so immovable on this point BUT, in my experience coaching new leaders, far too many executives move from being in the weeds to only touching them. Too often the first skill they hone is delegation when they should be leading by example. People know when you haven’t done the required homework for important corporate events/moves.  You can’t fool them!

Collaboration Builds Their Confidence in You

The reason I recommend remaining insecure a bit longer is that it forces you to collaborate with everyone and gather feedback in whatever form or tone it takes. This illustrates your humility and forbearance with people. It says their voice is important to you. It affirms people. And in turn, they gain confidence in your abilities.

Avoid Forcing Change

As you start your new leadership position, act as though everyone around you will remain as they are both in character and in their ability to guide your leadership actions. By operating this way, you can adapt your style to fit how they work best and persuade people from the character they have presented, not the one you want them to have. Eventually, you can affect the change you want but first, you have to see things from their perspective. They’ll make note of that effort and are more likely to accept your future plans.

Are you new to your leadership role? Let me know what your biggest challenge is below in the comments. Thanks!

Leaders…Think Before You Email

Communication of any type is always open to interpretation. Even face to face conversations are influenced by body language and other factors. Email is perhaps the most prone to misinterpretation as there is no auditory tone nor physical delivery. It’s just text.

So before you fire off an email, especially one that contains potentially tough information, here are four key To-Do’s BEFORE sending to insure that your intent is understood and accepted the way you want it to be:

#1: Know the Climate

You’ve got to know the climate into which you are sending your email. Is it friendly, hostile, or indifferent? And you’ve got to take responsibility for this environment. Ask yourself, if I’m him/her how would I react to this message? What would I intimate from it? Is there a deeper message here? You need to know where your reader is relative to your message. Will they still understand the “you” you want them to understand?

#2: Link Your Purpose to Your Reader’s Purpose

Often what you want and what your reader wants are two different things. By starting out with their purpose, you show your empathy. For example, if you want someone to stop procrastinating with an issue, initiate your message from the value moving it forward will have to them. What this does is it credentials you as an empathetic individual, reminding them that you are there to help achieve THEIR goals.

#3: See Their Reaction Before Their Reaction

You can do this. First, visualize how they’ll read your email, what they’ll think, and how they will react. Then, write it based on this visualization. Once you’re clear on how they will react, make sure they can self-realize your positive intent. If you see too many ways in which the message could be interpreted as counter to your intention, start over!

#4: Tailor Your Next Response

Yes, just like a chess match, know your next three responses from this communication. The more you understand your reader’s world, the easier it is to determine how they will respond. Remember, you are not communicating to yourself; you are communicating to another person with a different agenda than yours. Are you ready for resistance?  What do you believe it will be and what will be your reaction? Conversely, are you ready for acceptance and have your next steps lined up? This level of anticipation will increase your agility, building your reputation as a valued partner.

Try out these tips before your next difficult communique and let me know how it goes. At the very least, you will feel better as you send it, eliminating some of the anxiety that might have accompanied it otherwise!