Brian Tracy; is Chairman and CEO of Brian Tracy International, a company specializing in the training and development of individuals and organizations. He is the top-selling author of more than 45 books that have been translated into dozens of languages. Brian has been one of my mentors for the past 35 years and those of you who enjoy being inspired and motivated will enjoy Brain Tracy’s Book “FULL ENGAGEMENT”. The following article is taken from a brief summary from his latest book.

Welcome to the new world of business!

We have gone through a watershed in business activities and operations since 2008 and things will never be the same again. What you are dealing with today is the “new normal.” The good old days are gone forever.

Because of shrinking markets, increased competition, demanding customers and a never-ending shortage of highly qualified, productive people, you will have to do more with less, and get better results from limited resources, more than ever before.

As a manager at any level, you are essentially the operator of your own personal business unit. You have revenues and expenses, inputs and outputs, production and – loss statement reflects your ability to combine people and resources to get results especially financial results that are in excess, and, ideally, greatly in excess, of their total costs.

Most People Work at 50% of Capacity

According to Robert Half International, the average person works at about 50% of capacity. Because of unclear job assignments, lack of priories, poor management and direction, and lack of feedback, the average employee wastes 50% or more of his or her time in activities that have nothing to do with the job. This wasted time is consumed in idle chitchat with co-workers, extended lunches and coffee breaks, employees coming in late and leaving early, surfing the Internet and engaging in personal business and other time-filling activities that represent virtually no return to the company on the amount of money invested in paying people’s salaries, wages and benefits. But, as Napoleon said “There are no bad soldiers under a good general.” A good manger with a clear vision can quickly organize a group of average performers into a peak performance team that is capable of achieving tremendous results for the company. You just need to learn how to do it.

The Heart of the Matter
Here’s the lesson: The way you treat people, what you say and do that affects them emotionally, is more important than all the education, intelligence or experience you might have at doing your job. The best news is that because you are motivated and influenced by the same things other people are, you already know every-thing you need to know to become an outstanding manager/leader. You already know how to unlock the potential of the people around you, how to build a peak performance team that delivers consistently high levels of results for your company. You just need to apply it. Peter Drucker once said that the most important shift you can make in your vocabulary in business is to use the words contribution instead of success. When you start thinking in terms of contribution, your whole attitude about yourself, as a manger, and other people in the workplace as well, changes in a very positive way.

If business was easy everyone would be successful. It’s not. Business is constantly changing and adapting to change is challenging. Managing people who need to adapt to change is even more challenging.

Managing change has become the “silver bullet” in seeking the final component of successfully managing strategy, process, people and culture in most organizations today. More and more, staying competitive in the face of demographic trends, technological innovations, and globalization requires organizations to change at much higher rates than ever before. Few people will argue with this statement, but fewer still will say their organization does a good job at managing those changes. Managing change well is a continuous and ongoing combination of art and science that assures alignment of an organization’s strategies, structures, and processes.

A growing number of companies are undertaking the kinds of organizational changes needed to survive and prosper in today’s environment. They are streamlining themselves and thereby becoming more nimble and responsive to external demands. They are involving employees in key decisions and paying for performance rather than for time. They are taking initiative in innovating and managing change, rather than simply reacting to what has already happened.

“Producing major change in an organization is not just about signing up one charismatic leader. You need a group – a team- to be able to drive the change. One person, even a terrific charismatic leader, is never strong enough to make all this happen”

John P.Kotter in his book called “Leading Change” provides a sound process in eight stages to create a powerful template to follow:

The process of setting goals is a never-ending one – it changes as your needs change as you get older [or mature!], or if your life situation changes, for example if you start a family. But whatever stage of life you’re up to, the process remains the sam

1. What’s the ‘big-picture’
2. What do you want and what can you achieve
3. Set SMART goals based on achieving what you really want
4. Prepare action plans that allow you to launch into action
5. Monitor the progress of your goals.

Someone once told me that you need to ACT to succeed and achieve life satisfaction. And to be motivated to act, you must have goals – as well as the right attitude of course. Remember that YOU are the only person who can take control over your life, so do it NOW!

Those three words say a lot. When you STRIVE, you work hard and exert yourself, often against the tide of conventional opinion, competition, and your own complacency, doubts and fears. When you PERFORM, you are using your skills and abilities to do something…to execute and to get results. Ultimately, when you ACHIEVE, you are living a purposeful life. You reach a level of performance that is indicative of true success: you’re achieving your goals and dreams! We all understand that success is a journey and a way of living purposefully, not a destination. The foundation of business development is represented by

The Formula for Success:A ( S + K ) + G = PBC → IR (O, P) Attitudes plus Skills & Knowledge directed by Goals delivers Positive Behavior Change which yields Improved Results, both Organizationally and Personally.

Let’s look at each component of the Formula, working from right to left…

IR The first thing we look for is how we define success. We start out by asking what improved results (IR) we want to achieve in our organization or in their personal lives, and how that will be tracked and measured. The importance of a thoughtful definition of success is that it provides a target toward which everyone can aim. Everything else we do is specifically geared around achieving those results.

PBC Wouldn’t you agree that if that target is different than where you are today, then you must do something (behave) differently to get there? PBC represents positive behavior change.

A definition of insanity is doing the things you’ve always done, but expecting different outcomes.

G represents goals. Goals provide focus, otherwise there is no direction. Doesn’t it make sense that if people had goals on which to focus their energy, it would be easier to change their behavior in a way that can be sustained? Goal setting is the tool that generates the activity necessary to turn ideas into strategy, strategy into plans, and plans into reality.

S+K represent the necessary skills (the how to do something) and knowledge (the where and when to do something) A process that focuses on development of behavioral management skills, meaningful communications, influencing or selling skills, problem solving, decision making, organizing time, disciplining, developing subordinates, delegating authority, motivating others, appraising performance, etc. Everyone needs to be very competent in these areas, but especially in the workplace, where more than 50% of any manager’s job involves using these skills.

A The A stands for attitude (the want to). Leadership is vital based on a result-oriented philosophy that first involves developing a goal-oriented attitude among people. Attitude is more of a multiplier of skills and knowledge that will directly influence the goals set and achieve.

People will directly determine in many cases whether they turn a problem into an opportunity, or succumb to it; whether they behave in ways that benefit the entire organization; whether they expand the client base and services provided or allow atrophy to set in; and whether they diligently look for continuous improvement, or remain satisfied with the status quo.

The results are depending upon behavior and attitudes toward the people or events involved, and toward ourselves. If attitudes are basically negative, goals will be set low, and it will be difficult to progress.

Growth and promotion will be all but impossible until a positive mindset is developed. There are many ways and opportunities for individuals and organizations to better focus on results, attitudes and behaviors, skills and knowledge, goal setting and achievement. If you are interested in taking an important first step, let’s chat.
Visit www.ceoresourceboard.com

An effective individual, when presented with a new project or job, will quickly identify what the performance results should be. And if the result is not immediately obvious to them, they will concentrate on getting it clearly defined before they start.
Consequently, in looking at a new area or project, the performance characteristics of a top performer will typically prompt questions like:
1. “What are we trying to achieve here?”
2. “What’s the main objective of this project?”
3. “Where are we going with this?”

In simple terms, a top performer is results-oriented, so they will just naturally have their eye on the overall target.
They will also want to put the results they achieve into context with the rest of the operation. They will quickly align their results with the overall objectives of the bigger picture; that is part of their performance characteristics.
They either know what the results should be already, or they will get them nailed.
And they do this before they begin to operate in the new environment, or start to run the new project or job.
Non-performers have to be continually directed. You cannot take your attention off their area because you know it will go off the rails if you do. What does this do for executive sanity?

Their Actions are Effective
Have you ever had someone continually come back to you with problems? Top performers don’t do that. Top performers will find a way
They will go over, under, through or around the barriers they meet.
They are not robots following blind orders.
They will use their intelligence to figure a way to overcome the obstacles.
Sometimes the barriers are considerable indeed, but the measure of the top performer is their ability to get the result, come what may. Of course, there has to be a degree of intelligence in the way in which they “make it happen”.

The Expert
Sometimes you see someone who is very big on ideas. They can seem to be a top performer, because they apparently have the first attribute of being able to see the end result. The only problem is, it’s all theory, with no ability to get into action to produce those results.
Such people put a lot of importance on their academic achievements, or their titles. They seem to feel that having such status is all they need. But they fall dramatically short when it comes to getting results, so don’t be fooled.
A top performer, when they get into action, will not come back to you with endless problems and reasons why they cannot get the result. Their performance characteristics are such that they find a way!

They Measure Their Performance
One attribute by which you can easily recognize a top performer is that they know what their past results are. The fact that they are results-oriented means that they are very interested in what results they produce.
They measure them.
They record them.
They are very happy to tell you about them.

A top performer is always seeking to improve their performance results. If things went well, they want to know why, so they can repeat the same strategy next time. And if things did not go well, they also want to know about it, so they can correct that shortcoming in future.
How many times have you seen someone get a bad result, then proceed to do the same job in exactly the same way next time? Is that smart? No, but if the person has no concept of what they are supposed to be achieving, that’s most likely what they will do, because they just don’t get it.
So, the third characteristic of a top performer is their constant awareness of, and interest in, the measure of their results. Ask a top performer what results they have achieved in the past.
You will usually get a clear statement of achievements from them immediately.
They don’t have to think about it.
They are actually proud to tell you of them.
And they don’t forget them. It’s an integral part of their performance characteristics.

Can you imagine a top sales person, who doubled their budget three years in a row, not remembering that fact? Of course not! So, if someone tells you they “can’t remember” their results, that’s as good as saying they have none!

Executive Time
A manager has their own job to do and their own results to achieve.
Part of that job is supervising the people in their team, of course. But when this supervision takes so much of their time that it overwhelms the rest of their responsibilities, you have an overworked executive. And the rest of their job suffers as a result.
If you have ever replaced someone in your team with another whose performance characteristics were higher, you know what a relief that can be. You find you have more time in the day, because you can take your attention off that area, and get on with your own job.

What Can Be Done?

The obvious long term solution, of course, is to hire top performers! (We can help you in this department)
But there is also something you can do with the less effective staff you already have. Top performers look after themselves in this regard. But the next category down – the average performers – will respond to focus and direction because their performance characteristics do not permit them to see the end results clearly.
Take the time to make the organizational or departmental objectives clear.
Help your staff to understand where their individual performance results fit into the whole.
If you haven’t tried this, you will be pleasantly surprised.
And make sure that you can clearly define the results that every job in your area must achieve. Every job in your organization has valid and measurable performance results — otherwise, why are you paying someone to do it?

Management …is not about the preservation of the status quo, it is about maintaining the highest rate of change that the organization and the people within it can stand.

Sir John Harvey Jones

Learning… Innovating ….advancement

Business owners sometimes have a hard time with change. Setting up a business takes a ton of work to begin with and changing the way you’ve decided to do business means even more work. Chances are, when you set out to start a business, you didn’t do it because you were interested in making your life as tedious and laborious as possible. On the contrary, you wanted to do something you loved and were good at and make some money from it. Unfortunately, change is the only thing anyone can count on in the future. The good news is that the more open you are to changes, the better your business will ultimately be and the easier it will become both to do business and to keep adapting. Cultivating a love of learning and a willingness to apply it is the single best thing you can do for your business.

Learning new things everyday and staying on the forefront of technological and business trends will help you keep your business relevant and competitive. Learning as much as you can about your industry, business in general, and your customer’s wants may inspire you to make changes in your business, and making these changes might not be fun or easy, but every time you make a change and learn from the outcome, your business becomes sleeker and stronger. Also, many of the technological innovations that appear every day are created to make business easier. So, if you can summon the motivation to make a change now, you can potentially save yourself a lot of time and effort in the long run.

Many of the largest companies in the world are able to remain viable because they are willing to make necessary and sometimes painful changes to their structure and business model. Bill Gates is the CEO of one of the largest and most successful companies in the world and he is a self-proclaimed lifelong learner. He attributes his success to his desire to learn new things all the time and his willingness to make changes based on his learning.

If you stop learning, innovating, and advancing, you fall behind; because the rest of the world is thundering on like a juggernaut and they have no problem leaving you and your silly little company in the dust – more cake for them.

If you can learn to love learning, your responsibility to stay on top of business trends will be met with ease. Then, you need to be humble enough to open your mind to the possibility of changing the way you live and work for the better. Easier said than done, I know, but not only is it helpful to your business to keep learning, it’s absolutely vital. Wishing everyone a wonderful Christmas season.

• Open Minds
• Objectivity
• Competent Management

In the world of modern business, a company must be flexible in its operational philosophy and overall approach, lest that business merely subsist or fail entirely.

This kind of flexibility means more than simply adapting to changing economic factors. It means a willingness to reexamine any or all business practices, from sales and marketing to other aspects of operations; and to listen and hear as well as measure and plan. Some enemies of flexibility are closed minds, a focus on the bottom line only, managerial incompetence, and selective blindness.

Every business must identify and develop effective barometers to accurately measure key performance ratios, the competitive set, and changing market conditions. When measuring tools indicate trouble, warnings must be heeded andproperly planned action taken – rather than action that is impulsive or merely reactive. When “red flags” appear, the focus must be shifted away from what has not worked, and proactive, planned actions must be executed promptly and carefully.

Often times, a business owner or someone with a principle interest in a business will find the task of taking the right road can be cloaked in emotion or an inability to become flexible. I like the metaphor of the bicyclist who suddenly catches the front tire in a rut or trough and begins to fall. The temptation is to focus in the direction of the fall, which causes a crash, instead of the other direction, which will bring the bike upright and back into balance.

An over-correction in a business can have the same undesired result. The owner or principle must often force objectivity. This will mean stepping back and realizing that this is a time for critical examination and for decisions to be made carefully, possibly by more than one or two people.

Think about your last recruitment adventure. After you selected the people, did they work out as intended? Or did they turn into somebody totally unlike what you thought when you interviewed them?

The most important aspect of any business is recruiting, selecting, and retaining top sales people. Research shows those organizations that spend more time recruiting high-caliber people earn 22% higher return to shareholders than their industry peers.

However, most employers do a miserable job selecting sales people. Many companies rely on outdated and ineffective interviewing and hiring techniques. The critical responsibility of hiring sometimes gets the least emphasis.

Hiring and interviewing is both art and science. Refusing to improve this vital process will almost always guarantee you will be spending your precious money and time hiring the wrong people. Two out of three hires prove to be a bad fit within the first year on the job, and otherwise excellent employees are misplaced and grow frustrated in jobs where they are unable to utilize their strengths.

Here are several reasons why traditional techniques are inadequate:

• The majority of applicants “exaggerate” to get a job
• Hiring decisions may be based on the interviewer’s “intuition” during the first few minutes
• Most interviewers are not properly trained
• Many interviewers do they like to interview applicants

An effective selection and interviewing process follows these five steps:

Step 1: Prepare 
Prior to the interview, make sure you understand the key elements of the job. Develop a simple outline that covers the job duties. Possibly work with the incumbent or people familiar with the various responsibilities to understand what the job is about. Screen the resumes and applications to gain information for the interview. Standardize and prepare the questions you will ask each applicant.

Step 2: Purpose
Talented sales people have more choices and job opportunities to choose from than ever before, and the interviewer forms the applicant’s first impression of the company. Not only are you trying to determine the best applicant, but you also have to convince the applicant this is the best place for them to work.

Step 3: Performance
Identify the knowledge, attributes, and sales skills the applicant needs for success. If the job requires special education or licensing, be sure to include it on your list. Identify the top seven attributes or competencies the job requires and structure the interview accordingly. Some of these attributes might include:

• What authority the person has to discipline, hire, and/or fire others and establish performance objectives
• What financial responsibility, authority, and control the person has
• What decision-making authority the person has
• How this person is held accountable for performance objectives for their sales team, business unit, or organization
• The consequences they are responsible for when mistakes are made

Step 4: People Skills
The hardest to determine, as well as the most important part of the process, is identifying the people skills a person bring to the job. Each applicant wears a “mask.” A good interviewing and selecting process discovers who is behind that mask and determines if a match exists between the individual and the job. By understanding the applicant’s personality style, values, and motivations, you are guaranteed to improve your hiring and selecting process.

Obviously many jobs, particularly sales jobs, require a high degree of people contact. Placing someone who dislikes interaction with others in a sales job would be a mismatch and detrimental to his or her job performance.

Pre-employment profiles are an important aspect of the hiring process for a growing number of employers. By using behavioral assessments and personality profiles, organizations can quickly know how well the applicants will interact with their coworkers, their ability to sell and the kinds of relationships they build with customers. Profiles provide an accurate analysis of an applicant’s behaviors and attitudes, which are otherwise left to subjective judgment. For example, the D.I.S.C. Assessment* and the Sales Attribute Index* are popular and useful tools many sales organizations use.

* Ask us for sample copies to review.

Step 5: Process
The best interview follows a structured process. This doesn’t mean the entire process is inflexible without spontaneity. It means each applicant is asked the same questions and is scored using a consistent rating process. A structured approach helps avoid bias and gives all applicants a fair chance. The best way to accomplish this is by using behavioral based questions and situational questions.

Behavioral based questions help to evaluate the applicant’s past behavior, judgment, and initiative.

Here are some examples:
• Describe a crisis one of your clients faced and how you managed it.
• What makes you successful as a sales person?
• Tell me about the largest sales project you obtained and how you managed it.
• Tell me about the last time you broke the rules?
• Give me an example when you . . .

Situation Based Questions

Situation based questions evaluate the applicant’s judgment, ability, and knowledge. The interviewer first gives the applicant a hypothetical situation such as:
You are a sales manager, and one of your sales people is not making his or her goals.

a) What should you do?
b) What additional information should you obtain?
c) How many options do you have?

If we weren’t still hiring great people and pushing ahead at full speed, it would be easy to fall behind and become a mediocre company.
Bill Gates

I hire people brighter than me and then I get out of their way.
- Lee Iacocca

Excellence is not a singular act, but a habit. You are what you repeatedly do.
- Shaquille ONeal

“Advice is seldom welcomed; and those who want it the most always like it the least”

-Lord Chesterfield
This is no time for business owners and executives to close their eyes or rest on their laurels. Sure, business has never been easy, but it has rarely been harder than it is now. It’s important to make the effort to understand both why this is true and what can be done to stay on top of your game in a dizzying new environment.

We’re doing it all. Productivity continues to be high, because there are fewer people doing more jobs, working longer hours, having to come up with better ideas and solutions. If we don’t remain at the alert (or if we don’t hire back some of those people we’ve ushered to the sidelines) production will fall and our ability to respond to opportunities quickly will drop. Staff are often overworked which will catch up to the productivity gains in the long term.

Prospects and customers say “maybe” and “no” much more easily than “yes”. We must stay on our toes to give them reasons to move forward with us. They’ll save money. They’ll save time (which is money). They’ll be more productive (which is money). Or they’ll feel happier (which is more important than money sometimes). Get to yes. Expect to hear the going wisdom of the day “we have no budget” or “we’re not planning to do that until 2013″ or “we have a supplier already.” Invite your prospect to look at a situation through new eyes and improve results. You are a valuable resource to your potential clients … show them!

We’re operating in a new environment. Picture yourself trying to perform everyday tasks in a weightless environment. Your cereal floats away. You can’t move from here to there the way you used to. Doing business today is similar. People don’t often pick up their phones unless they expect your call. They may make decisions by doing research online rather than talking to people like you. They do without, or they do things themselves. How many major corporations have taken to creating their own sales materials (there’s nothing more impressive than the sales rep drawing the new automation system on a frayed paper napkin at Burger King to show to a key prospect), making their own travel arrangements, or even make their own coffee?

Take the time to dream up new ways to help your prospect, and to speak to their real concerns, which are very likely different than they were two years ago. Since you’re wide awake anyway, walk away from the lagging crowd. Think for yourself or find a fresh new adviser or partner with whom to share ideas. Figure out how to develop, value, sell and build market share for your product or service. Learn about the new tools and techniques, motivations and buy signals that work in a strange new world, even as the pundits wring their hands and your competition slumps in its seats.

We always hear about thinking outside the box…but we don’t live in a box. Be creative, seek advice, take a break from your computer and talk to people, face to face. Listen, share and learn.

And by the way, coffee helps.