Communications – Page 3 – thoughtLEADERS, LLC: Leadership Training for the Real World

Easy Steps Toward Becoming a Magnetic Leader

July 11, 2022/0 Comments/in Books, Communications, Guest Blogger, Leadership /by Trevor Jones

Magnetic leaders have a line of people waiting to work for them. What sets these leaders apart? Authenticity, vision, and resilience are three good first steps.

Today’s post is by Roberta Matuson, author of The Magnetic Leader (CLICK HERE to get your copy).

Lots of people believe it takes years for someone to become a magnetic leader. Lucky for you, I’m not one of these people. Magnetic leaders are ones who have a line of people outside their door, waiting to come work for them. That line moves slowly, as positions rarely become available.

There are seven traits of irresistible leaders. Here are three and how you can earn magnetic status almost instantaneously.

Authenticity

Magnetic leaders don’t try to be someone else, nor do they change who they are based on office politics. They are true to themselves and are honest in their dealings with others. They are not afraid to share their mistakes or shortcomings. Warren Buffet is an authentic leader who speaks openly about his $200 billion mistake buying Berkshire Hathaway.

I want you to think about how authentic you really are today. Here’s what I mean by this. Do you tell staff members you have a doctor’s appointment, when you’re really leaving work early to see your daughter’s school play? Are you being completely truthful when giving performance reviews or are you holding back because you don’t want to hurt other people’s feelings? Are you speaking up in meetings and saying what’s really on your mind or are you going along with what the boss has suggested because you’d like to remain in his favor?

A yes to any of these questions is a clear indication that you can improve your authenticity. As you can see, making some shifts in this area won’t require much in the way of skill building. However, it will require some internal shifts. If you find you are having difficulties making these modifications on your own, then consider hiring a coach, who can point out opportunities to improve in this area and will provide guidance as well.

Resilience

8 Tips for Avoiding Your Leadership Blindspots

July 4, 2022/0 Comments/in Books, Communications, Guest Blogger, Leadership /by Trevor Jones

Today’s post is by Robert Bruce Shaw, author of Leadership Blindspots: How Successful Leaders Identify and Overcome the Weaknesses That Matter (CLICK HERE to get your copy).

Leaders are faced with two conflicting needs. The first is to act with a deep confidence in their abilities and the strategies they are implementing. This allows them to pursue audacious goals and persevere when faced with adversity. The second is to be aware of their vulnerabilities and the need for a healthy dose of self-doubt. This allows them to see themselves and their situations accurately — avoiding, in particular, the hazards of over-confidence and excessive optimism. Those who fail to do so run the risk of having blindspots — which are the unrecognized weaknesses or threats that have the potential to harm a leader and his or her company.

Savvy leaders understand that blindspots, while they vary in severity and are different for each individual, are not the exception — instead, they “come with the territory.” The question then becomes: How do I surface and address the blindspots that matter? One way is to ask the right questions in the right way. Here are some guidelines for identifying blindspots:

1. Avoid yes-or-no questions. Closed-end questions (those that can answered yes or no) are efficient, but don’t surface information that may be critical to understanding a potential weakness or threat. Questions are called open-ended when they allow for a variety of responses and provoke a fuller discussion. For example, a closed-end question might be, “Are you going to deliver your business plan this year?” while an open-ended question is, “Tell me about the risks you face in delivering your plan and the actions you are taking to mitigate them?”

2. Don’t lead the witness. Hard-charging leaders often push to confirm their own assumptions about what is occurring in a given situation and often want to move quickly to a plan of action. This can result in questions that are really statements, such as, “Doesn’t this mean that we don’t have a problem with compliance in this area and can move forward as planned?” These types of questions, particularly when posed by those in positions of power, often prevent contrary points of view and necessary data from surfacing.

6 Steps to Achieving Your Goals in 90 Days

June 27, 2022/0 Comments/in Books, Communications, Entrepreneur, Guest Blogger, Leadership, Sales /by Trevor Jones

Achieving your goals is all about taking tangible steps every day. If you change your time horizon and ask yourself six simple questions, you’ll find you’re achieving your goals more rapidly than you ever thought possible.

Today’s post is by David Horsager, author of THE DAILY EDGE: Simple Strategies to Increase Efficiency and Make an Impact Every Day (CLICK HERE to get your copy).

I met an eighty-eight-year-old man named Orville at my health club. I first noticed him one afternoon while checking in at the front desk. He was stumbling along behind me. There was no way this man, slowly shuffling along the path to the gym, was going to do any kind of meaningful workout! Orville patiently moved, inch by inch, into the weight-training area, picked up some dumbbells, and, with an audible grunt, started his routine.

One day I happened to see Orville out of the corner of my eye, stepping onto one of the treadmills. I was across the room, and he was already reaching for the start button. Too far away to help him, I just stood there and watched. As the treadmill came to life, Orville took one small step, and then another. The machine picked up speed, but miraculously, so did his legs. Within a minute, he hit full stride, running like a man half his age!

At this point the reality of the situation dawned on me. Orville’s problem was not with his legs, it was with his vision. He couldn’t see where he was going. Though Orville did nothing to cause his vision problem, it is a powerful example of how limited we are when we lack clarity and vision.

How often do leaders and employees lack clarity in their communication, and as a result, drive forward ambiguous goals?

I think 90 days is the best timeframe for most goals. A year is too long – see how few people keep New Year’s Resolutions? Twenty-one days is too short for most real change. However, in 90 days, I was able to lose 33 pounds! And I’ve seen people triple their sales in 90 days.
That’s why I like the 90-Day Quick Plan. It is a strategy for clarifying how you are going to achieve your most vital goals.

Pick an area of your business or personal life that you’d like to address, and then ask six questions. Don’t wait to start because the plan should take less than thirty minutes to create. All you need to do is ask and answer these six questions:

How You Can Become a Listening STAR

June 6, 2022/1 Comment/in Communications, Guest Blogger, Leadership /by Trevor Jones

Today’s guest post is written by Brian Ahearn. Brian’s one of the most knowledgeable guys I know on the subject of influencing people (which is why he’s been a guest here before). Brian’s blog, Influence PEOPLE, is followed by people in more than 180 countries. You can learn more about Brian at the end of this post. Enjoy!

My wife Jane is an excellent golfer, a poster child for hard work and practice. Many years ago she said, “I’m tired of people saying I have potential. I want good scores!” She started taking lessons, practiced consistently at the driving range and saw her scores drop from 105-110 to the low 80s and occasionally a score in the high 70s! She exemplifies a truism in life – you don’t get good at something by merely learning about it. At some point you have to “do the stuff.”

Over the last few years I’ve conducted many sales workshops where people practice different skill sets. One such workshop was on active listening skills. Good listening skills are just as important for leaders as they are for salespeople.

Excellent leaders recognize the more information they have the better the solutions they can come up with. One important way leaders get their information is by actively listening. I’ll share five pointers to help you become listening “STARS.”

Listening is an active skill so you need to do several things if you want to excel. Listening skills are not things you can’t do. For example, I often tell workshop attendees I can’t dunk a basketball. Never could and it’s not likely at 48 years old, standing just 5’9 tall, that I ever will. Jumping high enough to dunk a basketball is a skill I don’t have and can’t acquire no matter how hard I work. If someone told me my career depended on dunking a basketball I’d start looking for a new career.

But that’s not the case with listening skills! Each of the five pointers I’ll share is within your power to do if you’ll just make the choice to employ them. To be listening STARS, you need to remember Stop, Tone, Ask, Restate and Scribble. Let’s look briefly at each.

You Might Consider Improving Your Executive Presence

May 16, 2022/0 Comments/in Books, Communications, Leadership /by Trevor Jones

Executive presence is an element of leadership that’s easy to recognize but difficult to develop, but might be the difference in your career progressing forward.

Today’s post is by Rob Salafia, a principal at thoughtLEADERS and author of Leading from Your Best Self (CLICK HERE to get your copy).

Executive presence is an element of leadership that’s easy to recognize but difficult to develop. In fact, in a recent study by the Center for Talent Innovation, it was found that feedback on executive presence is often contradictory and confusing and that 81% of those who are instructed to improve their executive presence are unclear on how to act on it.

For instance, can you relate to any of the situations below?

You have been passed up for a promotion—even though your record demonstrates that you’re smart enough and capable enough. No one can put a finger on exactly what the issue is, but it’s enough to hold you back.

Your boss or someone higher on the food chain has mentioned to you that, “you might consider improving your executive presence.” You walk away thinking to yourself, ok, now what?

You’re a manager with a team member who you know has the capability to shine but is struggling to find their voice.

Having spent the last 20 years helping executives develop executive presence, I have found the process to be something that people (regardless of gender, industry, country, and culture) struggle to understand and develop.

How to Tell a Story with Data

May 9, 2022/0 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Communications, Leadership /by Trevor Jones

Data can be boring even if it’s critically important. If you learn how to tell a story with data, however, the results can be compelling, interesting, and impactful.

Today’s post is by Paul Smith, thoughtLEADERS principal and bestselling author of Lead With a Story and Sell With a Story.

Have you ever been hammered with data that you knew was important but you didn’t understand why the person sharing it was so passionate about it? Have you ever shared data and facts with colleagues in an attempt to influence them only to find they didn’t care about the message you were trying to convey?

There’s a better way to communicate than just throwing data at people.

Tell a story with the data.

Here’s a quick video that covers an example of how to tell a story with data. The example will help you understand the technique and you’ll be telling better, more compelling stories before you know it if you apply these methods. Enjoy!

If you’re interested in becoming a better storyteller yourself, check out our Influencing through Storytelling course and our Storytelling for Salespeople course where we can come into your organization and help you build this powerful, critical skill.

What We All Need to Learn About Sales – From a Pig

May 2, 2022/0 Comments/in Balanced Lifestyle, Books, Communications, Leadership, Sales /by Trevor Jones

Stories are a great way to connect with your customer. They can make the ordinary product or service you’re selling extraordinary by adding richness and experience to the sale.

Today’s post is by Paul Smith, thoughtLEADERS instructor and author of Sell With a Story.

In May of 2015, my wife Lisa convinced me to attend a juried art fair with her at Coney Island in Cincinnati, Ohio. As an artist herself, she has a sophisticated appreciation for fine art that I don’t. She can spend hours on end lazily drifting from one booth to the next, studying each piece and talking to the artists about their inspiration, medium, and techniques. Me, I just like to look at the pictures.

As the day dragged on, we arrived at the booth of Chris Gug (pronounced “Goog”), a photographer known for his awe-inspiring images of marine life. His gallery is full of breathtaking underwater shots of anemones, corals, sea turtles, and whales. On a mission to find a piece for our boys’ bathroom at home, Lisa eyed a picture that, to me, looked about as out of place as a pig in the ocean.

It was a picture of a pig in the ocean.

She described it as inspired genius—a cute little baby piglet, up to its nostrils in salt water, snout covered with sand, dog-paddling its way straight into the camera lens.

I thought it was a picture of a pig in the ocean.

I asked the artist what on Earth that pig was doing in the ocean. And that’s when the magic started.

Gug explained that the picture was taken in the Caribbean, just off the beach of an uninhabited Bahamian island officially named Big Major Cay. He told us that years ago, a local entrepreneur brought a drove of pigs to the island to raise for bacon. Gug went on:

The Balancing Act – Self versus Collective Leadership

April 18, 2022/0 Comments/in Communications, Guest Blogger, Leadership /by Trevor Jones

Leadership requires both self-awareness and selflessness. Effective leaders know how to balance the purpose of their organization with their own self-interests.

Today’s post is by Jan Rutherford – author of The Littlest Green Beret. You can learn more about Jan at the end of this post.

The thing about leadership development is that it all starts with everyone’s favorite subject – themselves. Self awareness is the starting point for effective leadership, and it’s always interesting to watch my students obsess about survey results, feedback from peers, aptitude tests, and what it all means to their careers. The focus shouldn’t be on oneself, but on the leader’s effect on others. That is, our primary leadership tool is how we effectively communicate.

The variables are simply how well do we listen and how well do we speak to align expectations and achieve results? Ultimately, we control two things: where we spend our time, and how we respond to our environment. What priorities will best produce the results we’re after, and what attitude will we choose to deal with everyday ups and downs? After all, a leader’s environment is largely made up with a bevy of complex and unending interpersonal relationships.

Nick Petrie once published a brilliant white paper on “Future Trends in Leadership Development” where he discussed the transfer of greater developmental ownership to the individual. As a strong proponent of self-reliant leadership, I believe Petrie expertly articulated the need for developmental ownership to be squarely on the shoulders of the individual. Leadership can be an illusion of control, but changing your perspective on everyday experiences can provide inspirational learning opportunities for personal growth and development.

What questions should you routinely ask yourself? On a daily basis, what steps should you take to find personal success in your life’s work? Do you know your life’s work? Some say it’s the place where your passion and others’ needs intersect. I believe a key determinant of success is whether you can rely on yourself for self-coaching. However, self-reliant leadership is dependent on achieving a balance between independence and the interdependence of working with others to accelerate your own personal growth and development.

Self-reliance and leadership may seem to be contradictory notions, but there are three mutually supporting concepts:

5 Ways to Get Buyers to Tell Stories to Help You Close the Deal

March 28, 2022/0 Comments/in Books, Communications, Leadership, Sales /by Trevor Jones

Getting your buyers to tell stories can give you insight into how to sell to them more effectively. Here are five ways to get your buyers to tell you their stories.

Today’s post is by Paul Smith, thoughtLEADERS principal and bestselling author of Lead With a Story and Sell With a Story.

Your first objective in a sales call shouldn’t be to tell any of your stories. It should be to get the buyer to tell you their stories. If you don’t hear their stories first, how will you know which of your stories to tell?

You wouldn’t trust a doctor who wrote you a prescription without listening to you explain your problem, would you? Of course not. Then why would a buyer accept the recommendation of a salesperson who did the same thing?

And if you’re unsure about what kind of stories you should want to hear from your prospects, here are the three most productive ones you should be asking for:

A personal story – so you can get to know them better

A story about their biggest problem – so you’ll know what kind of help they need

A story about how their favorite supplier became their favorite supplier – so you can become their favorite supplier

Now, getting your buyers to talk is easy. Getting them to tell you stories requires a little more work. And you should want them to actually tell you stories not just talk, and for many of the same reasons why you should be telling stories to them:

It’ll help you relax and listen better
It’ll help you build a better relationship with them
It’ll help you better remember what they say, plus
When the story they tell is about the problem they’re facing, it helps you understand the context so you’ll have a better idea of the opportunity you’re up against.

So, here are five tactics being used by successful salespeople to get their buyers to tell stories:

Shut Up and Listen

That’s probably the most obvious but underutilized tactic to get stories out of buyers. Human beings abhor silence in a conversation like nature abhors a vacuum. We’re desperate to fill the void with something. So, if you can resist the temptation for that something to be your voice, you have a near certain chance of that something being the buyer’s voice.

Ask Open-Ended Questions

Scaling Up From Individual to Team

February 16, 2022/0 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Communications, Entrepreneur, Sales, Strategy /by Trevor Jones

When scaling your consulting firm up from an individual to a team, you’ll have to decide whether to hire contractors or employees. Learn the pros and cons of each.

When you want to grow your consulting firm, you’re probably going to have to bring on additional people. There’s only so much of you to go around. Make deliberate choices about whether the people you bring on will be contractors or employees. Ensure those individuals’ interests are aligned with yours.

If you’re going to bring on contractors, you don’t run into all the employment and tax issues and they’re going to be a more flexible workforce. The downside is they can leave suddenly and they don’t always share your personal interests.

If the people you bring on are employees, they’re dedicated to the work, but they come along with a lot of administrative issues you’re going to have to deal with. If you need someone who’s fully committed to building your firm but that person’s only interest is part-time work to supplement their income, you’re not going to be happy with that result.

Ensure interests are aligned between you and the people you bring on. A lot of times I get people who say they want to work with me, and we run a training firm. They’ll tell me, “Well Mike, when you can’t do the training session, just throw me that gig.” The problem is, I don’t need people for bandwidth to do the training. I need salespeople. That relationship won’t work out, so I have to hire different people.

I’ve chosen a structure where I have contractors. I don’t want to deal with the overhead. I don’t want to deal with the administrative issues. It’s great that I have contractors because I don’t deal with those issues. The downside is, sometimes I struggle to get my contractors’ attention and have them focus on building my business versus other interests they’re pursuing.

Know the different benefits and drawbacks of contractors and employees. Make sure you choose deliberately to drive the outcome you’re looking for.

Want more weekly consulting tips? How about taking an entire course on it? Go directly to the course and start improving your decision-making strategies. The entire course is available at LinkedIn Learning. Enjoy!

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Staying Connected With Clients

February 9, 2022/0 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Communications, Entrepreneur, Sales, Strategy /by Trevor Jones

As a consultant, your relationships with your clients are invaluable. Learn a few strategies for maintaining your client relationships.

Client relationships are the lifeblood of your business. Be deliberate about maintaining them. Regular contact will keep you top of mind. Beware of excessive contact; they’re going to ignore you or block you if you’re in their inbox too much. Find excuses to reach out to them like, “Hey I read an article and I thought of you,” or “I heard about a cool new technology and I thought you might be interested in it.” Send these notes and leave it at that. Don’t try and sell during these interactions. They know you eventually want to sell them something. Just focus on being helpful and good things are going to come.

I have one client who Read more

How to Lead a Steamroller on Your Team

February 7, 2022/0 Comments/in Books, Communications, Leadership /by Trevor Jones

Steamrollers get things done but they run people over in the process. Leading them is an exercise in reducing the friction they cause. Learn the key techniques for dealing with their challenges and make your team interactions smoother and less stressful.

Today’s post is by Victor Prince, thoughtLEADERS instructor and co-author of Lead Inside the Box.

Hank joined your team six months ago. You hired him because his résumé was great and he projected high levels of competence and confidence in the interview. He was clearly the best candidate for the job. The only warning flag you saw was from your calls to Hank’s references. While they confirmed the glowing results on his résumé you sensed reticence on their part. You heard their answers trail off leaving an unsaid “but…” hanging at the end. You attributed it to your inner pessimist looking to find flaw with the outstanding candidate you were hiring.

Hank got off to a fast start once hired, immediately producing great results and even instituting new, best practices he learned from prior experiences. However, within a few months, every single one of his peers mentioned Hank was challenging to work with and creating problems for them. They said he tended to barrel along and do his work without coordinating with others. What you saw as confidence in his interview came across to others as arrogance and an unwillingness to listen. The angst and problems he produced eroded your team’s morale and performance and piled stress on you. You found yourself making excuses for his behavior and soothing hurt feelings. You got the sense the frustration your team felt toward Hank began to apply to you as well. Hank was performing like a “Steamroller” high-cost producer – he produced results, but also produced a lot of unnecessary cost in his wake.

How to Lead a “Steamroller”

The goal with Steamrollers is to “reduce friction.” You want to continue getting great results from them while reducing the toll their actions take on others.

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