Courtesy of: See Here

“What I don’t like about office Christmas parties, is looking for a job the next day.”

—- Phyllis Diller

 Holiday office parties!!! For some the mere mention of office social events can invoke a sense of fear and panic. For others it is a chance to let loose and as B. B. King would say “let the good times roll”?

With a bit council on the subject you can be sure to maintain your status on the office nice list. For how to avoid the unmitigated disaster also known as your last office Christmas party read on.

#10- Beware the date from hell. So your date for the evening may be lovely arm candy, but get a few drinks into them and….they could ruin your reputation. Try taking your prospective date out a week before the office shindig, just for a test drive.

#9- Do not tell dirty or off colour jokes. I know that the urge to do so may be overwhelming after your 4th drink but realize that doing so will not only seriously detract from your credibility in the office it could also result in legal repercussions.

#8- Arrive on time. Punctuality is important, in life as well as in business. When we keep people waiting it tells them that we do not think they are important. We wouldn’t want our boss to think that now would we?

 

Courtesy of: Business Cartoons

#7- You are being observed. While everyone wants you to have a good time at the office holiday bash, everything that you do counts for something. Let the knowledge that you are being watched (though not in a creepy way) govern your behaviour.

#6- Leave your right hand open for hand shakes. There is nothing worse then scrambling to put your plate and cup down and proceeding to wipe your sticky wet hand on your pant leg before being officially introduced to the CEO of your company. If you just can’t resist the jelly filled doughnut, be sure to eat with your left hand.

#5-Don’t forget your breath mints. Earning a reputation for having offensive breath can seriously harm your career prospects. After all, if colleagues drop like flies within a 2 metre radius people may start to believe that you are cursed. Bringing along a pack of mints will solve this problem and ensure that you are ready for anything.

#4- Avoid inappropriate gift giving. One suggestion is to purchase gender neutral gifts. For example items such as a bottle opening set, a martini shaker set; popular Christmas CD’s/ DVD’s are great ideas. Buying potpourri, a singing fish or a moose head may offend the chemically sensitive, or the animal activist in your office.

 

Courtesy of: The Daily Mail

#3- Nix the office Romance. Sure ‘Susie’ from accounting might look really good after a few drinks, but office romance of any kind is looked down upon. Not to mention that when it goes badly… and unless you truly are soul mates, you will be forced to endure awkward feelings and situations until one or both of you finds a new job.

 

 

Courtesy of: Ricky Banks

 

#2- Save the skin for someone who wants to see it. Although all of us were taught not to judge a book by its cover…perception of the scantily clad intern will not be favourable. Lack of clothing generally translates into a lack of respect. General rule of thumb is that those who’ve got it don’t really feel the need to flaunt it!

 

Courtesy of: iStock Photo

#1- To drink or not to drink? This is a question asked by so many people around this time of year. Drinking within reason is not ‘questionable’ behaviour; it is failing to know your own limits that will make you questionable in the eyes of the powers that be. Try organizing a buddy system with a trusted friend, who can drag you home from the party before giving you the opportunity to embarrass yourself.

For all of you who enjoy living dangerously and are willing to risk being naughty listed by your boss, why not get a head start on the professional development courses you were looking into?

 

Courtesy of: Business Cartoons

 

Individuals follow leaders for reasons that range from “because they have to” to because of what that leader embodies, according to author and leadership expert John C. Maxwell addressing Emory University’s Goizueta Business School. Maxwell says that firms have one of five levels of leaders. The lowest level, Level One leaders, are those who are followed simply because they’re the bosses and people have to follow them. Level Two leaders are those who are followed because people want to follow them. At Level Three, people recognize what the leader has accomplished for the company and, therefore, they follow. Level Four leaders attract followers because of what they have done for the employees, and this is where “loyalty kicks in,” says Maxwell. At Level Five leadership, the highest, people follow because of who the leader is inside and what that person represents. Leaders need to take care of their own learning and development as well as valuing their people enough to invest in building their capabilities, too. Maxwell is the author of The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. (Leadership and Change [Knowledge@Emory], August 8-September 11, 2007)

Episode 10 of Business Intelligence focuses on the concept of smarter selling. John Eckmire of Canadian Management Centre speaks with Keith Dugdale, co-author of “Smarter Selling,” on developing relationships with clients and the value of changing your behaviour to emulate those around you.

Download here: BI #10 - Keys to Successful Client Relationship Management
Running Time: 20 min 42 sec
Extended Show Notes:

• The concept of smarter selling is that sales people need to help their clients, and not just sell them products. When you are developing a relationship with your clients based on value, you are going above and beyond and it will be appreciated.
• View the ‘The Octagon Behavioural Questionnaire’ here
• It’s important to recognize where you are on the IOU Behaviour Profile in order to :

1. Get to know and understand your own natural behaviours, which will then make for good relationship building

2. Develop the ability to read others from the behaviours in front of you. By understanding other people’s behaviour profiles you will learn how to best match them so you can develop meaningful client relationships

a. Behaviour matching knowledge is important for recruiters to understand because often they tend to hire people just like them because it’s easy. (As humans we like people that are just like us.)

• Learning to understand the behaviour profile of one’s business partners can be helpful as you can alter your conversational techniques in order to appeal to their business goals.

• Listening with meaning is a skill that takes a long time to develop

• Typically in business you rarely present plans etc. to a single person. When presenting in a group, standard strategy is to go ahead and present and try to develop a relationship with 1 of the 4 people present. This will often result in having two or three people not warm to you.

• Instead, present with the goal of understanding the mindset of your client(s), and presenting with something that speaks to each person in the room. There’s a much higher chance of success, and it’s easier to win people over when something you have said reaches out to them individually.

• Often people think they are a certain behavioural type (ex. detail oriented), but that might just be how they are in relation to their peers.

• The largest behavioural challenges to stepping over the chasm between one’s own behaviour orientation and a clients behaviour orientation are:

1. Detail to Big Picture AND

2. Practical / Feeling
a. This is because it deals with emotion and the practical person is extremely logical. If you are naturally practical, the thought of opening up about your personal life is extremely challenging / terrifying. So, if the person you are dealing with is prone to talking about their feelings and you have to do the same in order to build rapport, it is extremely hard. The risk is feeling interrogated.

• Sales Training often teaches people to talk about something personal, BUT this can be a mistake because one never knows what kind of behavioural type you’re dealing with right away. The best approach is to ask broad, open questions and then listen to the words/language used and reciprocate. (Ex. How was your weekend?)
• When recruiting do not use behavioural knowledge to assess people. Instead use behavioural knowledge to help place recruits in areas best suited to them.
• The challenge is learning to change behaviours on the spot in a variety of different situations.
o Remember: its behaviour that should be modified, NOT personality. Personality is more hard-wired, whereas behaviour is situational.
• Working against your natural personality is difficult. It is both a skill that you hone and a mindset you must adopt.
• It’s a common sense concept, but human beings often violate their own common sense because we tend to feel that our way of doing things is the right way. (As opposed to the possibility that someone else’s way might be correct.)
• Human beings get comfort from a combination of three things:
1. Presence: physical attribute, eye contact, handshakes, the way you look
2. Authority: the technical knowledge one has, they like knowing, hate NOT knowing
3. Impact: ability to ask questions, control, challenge, act as a catalyst in situations
a. The point of seminars is to build people’s confidence in the Impact category, so the fear of not knowing diminishes and they behave better and more effectively in meetings.

Decision Acceleration System

To make the decision easier, think of your sales people, product materials, presentations, seminars, press releases, hot lines—in fact, every aspect of your marketing program—not as sales communications, but as a Decision Acceleration System for your customers and prospects. To turn your marketing into a Decision Acceleration System, make the product:

• Benefits, claims, and promises obvious and compelling
• Information clear, balanced, and credible
• Comparisons reveal meaningful differences
• Trial easy
• Evaluations crystal clear and simple
• Guarantees ironclad and generous
• Testimonials and other word-of-mouth marketing relevant and believable
• Delivery, training, and support superior

When customers have information that makes a decision easy, they make it quickly. When a company makes it easy for me to decide on its product, not only do I buy the product, I also feel gratitude and a sense of loyalty to the company that gave me the easy choice. Full, balanced information about a product or service—including clear product comparisons, guarantees, and a commitment to support, all provided in the right sequence—enhances the value of the product and gives it a competitive advantage. Stated another way, the product with the better decision-support system often has the competitive edge, even if the product itself is not superior.

This isn’t just theory. It is a fact of life for every product or service, whether it’s a simple consumer packaged goods product or the most complex medical, industrial, financial, or agricultural device or service. If you make the decision easier, more prospects can select your product more quickly and with greater confidence, and overwhelming market dominance is often the result. Not just market share increases of 10% , 25% , or even 50% , but 10, 25, or 50 times the expected market share. For the very few who have discovered it, it’s the best-kept secret weapon in marketing.

Sometimes a product comes along that is so obviously superior that it seems to “sell itself.” (Even then you could say that it sold itself because the decision was so easy.) But most buying decisions take time and effort. If the information provided by the seller is inadequate, we must go searching on our own to make up the deficits. At best, the days, weeks, or months lost by those delays cause confusion (a form of decision friction) and thereby slow the product’s growth, making it share the market with all the competitors. Your advantages get lost in the shuffle. These decision points accumulate, causing prospects to drop out of the decision cycle, and spell disaster for the product’s success. You need to structure the decision process for customers, and guide them through the twists and turns. Without active guidance, they will falter and flounder, and drown in a sea of information.

The Secret to Shortening the Customer’s Decision Cycle

Shorten the decision cycle by making the decisions easier for the prospect, by focusing on its particular decision roadblocks, bottlenecks, friction points, and rough spots. It’s this ridiculously simple marketing idea that’s at the root of my entire approach to marketing. It’s one of those ideas that is simple, obvious, compelling, and almost totally ignored, both in theory and practice. Decision acceleration is not written about by marketing gurus, and it is not thought about by product managers formulating product strategy. It will turn into your secret weapon.

Come back next week to learn about the Decision Acceleration System

How companies can attract multi-generations:

• Consider part-time employment. Older workers approaching retirement should have the option to continue working within the company in a part-time capacity, thereby allowing the company to take advantage of their accumulated expertise and knowledge. Xers and millennials, who are very concerned with work/life balance, value a flexible work schedule.

• Reexamine retirement and savings plans. Many companies still require employees to work five or more years before they are fully vested in a retirement plan. This worked for traditionalists who value tenure and boomers who stick around to climb the corporate ladder, but millennials and Xers are likely to change jobs when they don’t feel challenged anymore, which could be every few years. Therefore, companies offering a wider variety of retirement or long-term savings plans stand a better chance of meeting the financial needs of all employees.

• Consider performance incentives, in addition to tenure-based awards. Many employees look for opportunities to learn and grow, rather than establishing longevity. Offer both tenure-based and performance-based award programs.

Gone are the days of a one-size-fits-all management style, work schedule or benefits package. If your company plans to remain competitive in recruiting fresh talent while preventing current employees from being lured away, it’s crucial to adapt to the needs of a diverse workforce.

(Reproduced with permission of author Linda C. Haneborg)

Four generations co-exist in today’s workplace:
• Traditionalists—born between 1925 and 1942. They thrive on loyalty and stability. Many in this generation have worked for the same employer for their entire professional careers.
• Boomers—born between 1943 and 1960 . They comprise a majority of today’s workers. Most are team-oriented, driven individuals who work hard to climb the corporate ladder. Their responsibilities include raising a family and caring for aging parents.
• Generation X—born between 1961 and 1981. They’re independent and aren’t afraid to switch jobs or careers in an effort to continue gaining experience and knowledge.
• Millennials—born after 1981. They are just beginning to enter the workforce. They are expert multi-taskers and are always looking to balance hobbies and volunteer activities with work.

It is important to educate workers to be sensitive to generational differences. If employees are aware that differing work styles often stem from generational differences, they will be more willing to cooperate with a co-worker, rather than act in a negative way. For example, the traditionalists and boomers often feel comfortable with a “top-down” management style, while gen-Xers and millennials tend to value knowledge and teamwork.

Older and younger generations must work together to bridge the knowledge and employment gap. The gen-Xers and millennials are needed in the workforce not only for their leadership and innovation, but also to fill the gap left by the retiring employees. However, companies will experience a significant knowledge gap if all the traditionalists and boomers retire and permanently leave the workforce. Companies need to work to find an acceptable balance for all workers.

Check back tomorrow to learn How companies can attract multi-generations
(Reproduced with permission of author Linda C. Haneborg)

Welcome to episode 9 of Business Intelligence, this week’s show focuses on motivating your employees. John Eckmire of Canadian Management Centre speaks with Liz Murphy esteemed faculty member at Canadian Management Centre with expertise in the areas of Motivation, Assertiveness, Business Communication and Leadership.

Download here: BI #09 - Motivation in the Workplace
Running Time: 17 min 53 sec
Extended Show Notes:

• According to Liz motivating your employees involves the consideration of three main things:
1. Foundation: Those things basic to motivating people to move in the direction that you want them to go. This consists of understanding what individual employees need to feel valued within the workplace as well as setting out clear expectations.
2. Climate: Adds a new layer to the workplace experience. When people experience “positiveness” at work they tend to be inspired to do their very best.
3. Destination Planning: Helping the people you manage work towards their future. Good managers will help you get to where you want to go in your professional life.

• Motivation according to Liz means getting the best out of people through positive reinforcement

• New managers are often concerned about whether or not they will be successful at motivating people

• To inspire people in their day to day activities employers must understand that their employees want to get the most out of their workplace.

• The feeling of being valued by your employer is the number one indicator of a highly motivated employee

• When ranked by employee satisfaction the Of top performing companies reported praising their employees at least once a week

• Managers must be interactive with their employees by asking them how they feel you are performing, asking questions such as:
1. What do I as a manager do that works for you?
2. What do I as a manager do that I need to do differently?
3. Do you feel that you are getting enough feedback?
4. What can I do to make you better?

• What if you are in a position where you are not motivated by your employer? What can you do to keep yourself motivated?
1. Reinforce Yourself: Making use of honest and positive self talk will help to remove the barriers that we often create for ourselves.
2. Understand what is Expected of you: This way you will have a feeling of accomplishment when you reach the goals set for you by your employer

• Generational differences may colour what motivates the individual, so as a manager identifying individual preferences for praise and motivation is key

Why Speed Equals Multiplied Sales
Suppose there are five similar products competing in a new category. All things being equal, they will each eventually capture a 20% market share. Say the decision cycle time for these products is about one year.

Now suppose that you are competitor #1, and you find a way to make several of the time-consuming steps in that decision cycle easier for your prospects, cutting the decision time in half. What happens to your and the other competitors’ market share?

Obviously, if your product achieves its expected one-year market share in six months, it will have effectively doubled the market window of opportunity, giving you the time and resources to capture another 20% market share in the remaining six months. This would give your product a 40% share at year’s end, with the four other competitors sharing the remainder, at 15% each.

But even that triumph is not the whole story. It leaves out the powerful effect of word of mouth and assumes each prospect makes a solitary decision. When you increase the decision speed for your prospects by 100%, you not only get customers sooner, you turn those customers into zealous advocates for your product before the competitors have a similar opportunity. Why would your user endorsements be any better than those from competitors? First because they are available sooner, but second, and more important, your endorsements will be supported by the targeted, persuasive information you selected and provided to shorten the decision cycle in the first place!

With this kind of decision support, the first marketing months can generate such evangelism among early adopters that a 40% market share could be too conservative a goal. A more likely outcome could be a 60% to 80% market share for your product, a 10% share for product #2, with the others splitting the remainder. This isn’t pie in the sky. Most marketers will recognize that this is the pattern for many products.

Come back next week to learn The Secret to Shortening the Customer’s Decision Cycle

(Reproduced with permission of author George Silverman)

Screening and hiring, then retaining the best people is critical. Then keeping them trained in current/new technology and not losing them to competitors is the next challenge. There are many time-proven screening and assessment tools that are both legal and very useful to use in hiring. Don’t use the “mirror test” (if they breathe on a mirror and it fogs up, you hire them!) Do as many background checks as you can (legally). Look for problems in prior jobs, with the law, credit problems, and for patterns of repeated changes of jobs. Get help developing good, legal but penetrating interview questions. Learn what you can’t ask them too (i.e., questions that would violate their civil rights — for example, their age).

There are also tests, which are legally appropriate, that help assess how the person fits specific job needs (i.e., lifting a given weight), if they have claimed skills (dexterity, or know-how) and if they will fit the company culture (personal traits — i.e., avoid “chronic malcontents who will usually reveal this under good interview questioning). Many experienced and respected companies can provide these kinds of testing regimens.

Check applicants’ references and consider the source of how they found you or vice versa. Use caution in hiring relatives of current employees. This can be a two-edged sword — you can get some really good people — or you can get some really sticky problems. Employee theft and/or malicious mischief can be a real problem. Do a good, basic orientation for all new hires: company history/purpose, goals and objectives, rules and practices, who to see for what, and provide them an employee manual or equivalent outlining the basics for their reference (and your protection).