It’s the dawn of 2012 – the year we’ve all been waiting for, thanks to the Mayans and their spooky calendar forecasting the end of the world in December. Some of my friends have jokingly threatened to max out their credit cards, take up smoking, stop exercising, move to a beach house, and live it up this year. Why not, right? If the end time is coming, who cares about bad credit scores, smoker’s cough, or expanding waistlines?

I don’t know about you, but I’m not ready to throw in the towel just yet. The Mayans may have foretold doomsday, but I’ve got my own set of predictions for 2012. I’m not suggesting who’s going to win the next election or the Super Bowl. My predictions are less about events and more about dynamics – the nature of the dynamics between us and our companies, our colleagues, our families and friends, and our communities.

If we’re not careful, gridlock will become a way of life. In 2012, we’ll continue to see gridlock in politics (neither side of the aisle is willing to compromise), travel (out-dated and under-funded infrastructure vis-à-vis our roadways, the FAA, and a lack of fuel-efficient travel alternatives), and customer service (a generally lackluster and synthetic approach to handling customer service issues). Whether it’s in politics, travel, or customer service, gridlock is evidence that assets have been overleveraged; that there is little more to give. So, if all signs point to more impasses, more stalemate, and more logjams, is gridlock something we’re going to have to get used to? Maybe not… I think 2012 has the potential to be the year of anti-gridlock.

What follows are 10 things I think will influence all of our relationships in the coming year to help push through the gridlock that was 2011, whether the Mayans were right about the End of Days or not.

1.  Non-traditional education is in. We all agree that computers (and iPads) should be used in school, and that we should tailor teaching to the way our kids learn, not the other way around. In 2012, we will see the needle move in our antiquated education model. There will no longer be a devotion to one-size-fits-all. The curriculum is no longer a sacred cow. The Khan Academy and Moodle are testaments to this. Open source learning platforms like these will make it possible to get curriculum from anywhere in the world, quickly and inexpensively. This is a game changer.

2.  Tablets will rule the day. The same way smart phones revolutionized the way we navigate our world (now, we can even use our phones to pay for a cup of coffee at Starbucks) so too, will tablets. Tablets are going to be an essential part of our everyday lives, for everything from reading books to shopping to doing our jobs. American Airlines is even allowing its pilots to use iPads in the air versus carrying on hefty flight manuals and charts, and the company estimates it’s going to save over a million dollars a year in fuel costs as a result. Just another environmentally-friendly step closer to eradicating paper. In fact, I think tablets will be the nail in the coffin for conventional newspapers.

3.  Videos, videos, and more videos. Whereas social media was the hot item in 2011, mobile media will be all the rage in 2012. I’m not talking about high-end production in terms of video quality. No, it’s all about the content. It’s so easy for anyone, anywhere, to capture a moment, an experience, or an event and then quickly distribute it worldwide; and what’s going to distinguish all of those feeds will be the content. People will gravitate to what’s most valuable.

4.   The ball is in the employee’s court. Throughout the late 2000’s, providing an excellent client experience was the focus of the most successful companies. But beginning in 2012, we’re going to see the emergence of a talent war which will force companies to not only provide an excellent client experience, but also a superior employee experience. Even though we still have high unemployment rates, there are tens of thousands of jobs available because there is a lack of qualified workers to fill them. There is going to be more competition for talent than ever before, especially in highly technical fields. Those who are qualified will be a hot commodity, and employers will have to compete to attract and keep the best and brightest.

5.   Stories still sell. This is a prediction that would probably come true every single year, not just in 2012. We, as human beings, are always going to be compelled by the will-to-win story, the story of a person or a company who had to struggle to overcome a challenge. We love the underdog because their stories give us hope, which is something we always need. So, stories will be the continued medium for how we communicate – and how we sell.

6.   Grit is the new currency. This goes back to #5: we will really begin to appreciate people who have worked through hardship and persevered. The more challenge you’ve overcome, the more trustworthy you are. In fact, grit is the leading indicator to trust. There’s something pure about someone overcoming a challenge versus someone who’s won the lottery or who’s famous for being famous (Hello, Paris Hilton! Hello, Snooki!). The latter do not inspire compelling, lasting relationships built on trust. They’re the antithesis of grit, and people will soon tire of them.

7.   Advice is a must. In a world where competition is fierce, people will be looking for every edge they possibly can. With fewer resources, less energy, and less to leverage, every decision becomes more critical. They’re looking for the newest, the best, the tried and true – whatever it is that’s going to help them move forward more quickly and efficiently. From consulting to continuing education, if it’s going to help folks net better results, people are going to be into it.

8.   Emotional intelligence finally breaks into the MBA programs for real. At last, the idea that ones’ emotional intelligence is as important to their success as their IQ will become institutionalized, and it will happen in an incredibly important place: the programs that train our business professionals. The notion that it takes more than book smarts to be a great business leader has been teetering on the brink of mainstream thinking for quite a while, but this year it will finally take flight in American MBA programs. It’s about time.

9.   This will be a reinvesting year… again. 2012 will not be a year to make withdrawals, but rather to continue making deposits. Reinvest, reinvest, reinvest, reinvest. I know we’re all tired of this. We’ve been doing it ad nauseam for three years now. But it is what it is, and we can’t expect the economy to be massively different than it was in 2011. Don’t expect to work any less hard. In fact, be prepared to work twice as hard, and be prepared for it to take twice as long to get us back to a pre-2008 economic landscape. We will probably have to do the same thing again next year, too. I know that’s blunt, but there’s no way to sugarcoat it. This is our new reality. It’s about living within our means. Being pragmatic with our finances. Investing in relationships and reinvesting in our companies, in our infrastructure, in our health, and in our communities. Trust me; these investments really will pay off… eventually.

10.   Gratitude is the common ground. Despite the difficulties we’re bound to face in 2012, we still have a pretty unique opportunity in this country. So if we want to find something to rally around, it would be in the form of gratitude, because it can always be worse. Our situation is not permanent. It’s not the end of the world. We have such incredible freedoms and opportunities, and so many choices compared to people in other countries. Sure, we have challenges headed our way, but at least we can be grateful for another year to be who we are, to really begin to share our perspectives with each other, and to listen to one another’s stories, because I believe that could actually move us out of gridlock and into a brighter tomorrow.

Joe Mechlinski is the President of entreQuest and has partnered with countless leaders to effectively improve their team’s performance, their clients’ experience, and their company’s profits.

Thanksgiving evokes images of football, family reunions, roasted turkey with stuffing, and pumpkin pie; but all too often the true meaning of Thanksgiving is lost in the shuffle of the festivities.

This year, as we think about the true meaning of Thanksgiving, the entreQuest team can’t help but express our absolute gratitude to all the individuals and companies we have had the unique privilege to work with. We are truly grateful for the remarkable opportunity to share in their growth and success.

Without a doubt, each of us is grateful for family, friends, and all that is great in our lives, but in a world that is moving so fast, we often times, become immersed in the “actions” of our day, rather than the “impact” of our day and its effects on others. 

Throughout our nation’s early history, several days were proclaimed national days of Thanksgiving and Praise. In 1789 George Washington proclaimed the 26^th of November to be a day of thanksgiving for God’s blessings. Then, years later, in the midst of the Civil War, Lincoln proclaimed the last Thursday in November, “a national day of thanksgiving and praise”.

Surely, our Founding Fathers were immersed in the many important affairs of their day, and yet these men took time to pause and recognize the importance of gratitude and blessings. As we face the ever changing world of today, let us also pause to reflect upon our blessings and to be thankful.

May this Thanksgiving season be filled with peace, health, and happiness for you and your family.

 “Thanksgiving, after all, is a word of action.” W.J. Cameron

Emily Cosgrove is the Marketing Manager at entreQuest and works closely with all team members to provide employees and clients with remarkable experiences. 

With all that has been written in the days following the death of one of America’s greatest corporate leaders, it would not be of the Apple kind of creativity if we just repeated what is already out there.  In honor of Steve Jobs, we’ll try to “think different.”

Though his body proved vulnerable in the end, the mindset of Mr. Jobs was truly an unstoppable force.  Those business professionals out there who have experienced entreQuest trainings know that we often discuss the Pareto Principle – or “the 80/20 rule” – where 20% of the workforce is generally responsible for 80% of the revenue.  With Apple valued at $350 billion at the time of his death, we speculate that the S. Jobs Principle could amount to a “99/1 rule” – where 1% of the visionaries accounted for 99% of the innovation.  Jobs was one leader in technology but he revolutionized almost every corner of its market.

For all of his success however, Steve Jobs met face-to-face with failure over and over and over again.  It could almost be speculated that his secret to winning was losing.  He dropped out of college.  He started-up an office in his parents’ garage.  After making $117 million with his first commercial commuter designed for the masses called Apple II, he missed the mark with the following models named Apple III and Lisa.  His leadership then slumped so much that the board ended up firing him.  He was hired back for an annual salary of $1.00.  He posted a quarterly loss after the cube-shaped Macintosh fell short.  And his body developed cancer.

By our society’s standards, that’s a fair amount of disappointments.  But by Steve’s standards, that’s just fair game.  He was a winner who didn’t dwell upon setbacks but rather constantly reset himself and his team for comebacks.  Not the kind of comebacks that required Apple to alter its story or its ambitions but the simpler kind of comebacks that showed a lesson had been learned and a new approach was being tried.  These were the experiments that resulted more often than not in big peaks of economic glory for Jobs (and everyone holding jobs under him).  For example there was NeXT Inc., Pixar Animation Studios, iMac, iPod, iTunes, iPhone, and iPad.

Steve Jobs had a vision for advancing technology to standards in design, aesthetics, ease, functionality, entertainment, and cool-factor.  Even more, he believed he could make this vision a reality and that made him maintain a mindset that he would wind up a winner.  And he did – even before Apple grew to become the most valuable company in the world as it remains at present.

Though Jobs has died, we now hold the living versions of his longtime vision.  With this technology in our hands, all we who remain here in the marketplace need is to adopt his mindset to turn our own career stories from fantasies to facts. 

For more information on how you yourself can “Choose to Win,” read the entreQuest article published in SmartCEO Magazine at this link:  http://www.entrequest.com/wp-content/pdf/entrequest_Mindset_12.03.pdf?phpMyAdmin=d2c4aa6766ft5760658.

Joe Mechlinski is the President of entreQuest and has partnered with countless leaders to effectively improve their team’s performance, their clients’ experience, and their company’s profits.

(*Information Sources:  “Steven Paul Jobs, 1955 – 2011″ by Yukari Iwatani Kane and Geoffrey A. Fowler.  The Wall Street Journal.  Thursday 6 October 2011.)

Twenty years ago, there was one model that every America could reference for healthy eating – the USDA Food Pyramid.  Taped up to the walls of public school cafeterias or illustrated on the back of cereal boxes, everyone from expert to everyday citizen seemed to agree on the definition of the optimal diet.  Daily, it included:  6 – 11 from the grains group (bread, cereal, rice, pasta), 3 – 5 servings of vegetables, 2 – 4 servings of fruit, 2 – 3 servings of protein (meat, poultry, fish, dry beans, eggs, nuts), 2 – 3 servings of dairy (milk, cheese), and then the triangle topped off with the “use sparingly” foods (fats, oils, sweets).

Looking back now, how did that model work out for us?

Statistically speaking, the answer is not very well. 

As stated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: “During the past 20 years, there has been a dramatic increase in obesity in the United States and rates remain high.”

Hence why the USDA sent a wrecking ball through the food pyramid and then set a plate in its place.  This new circular model acts as a pie chart for what proportions of what foods constitute an appropriate meal.  It also includes a cup of milk to the side.

While we hope the new icon provides a better strategy in America’s ongoing battle with rising obesity rates, we kind of wish the government had consulted entreQuest first.  We might have been able to save them some of the costs related to overhauling their collateral from pyramid to plate. 

Since our the earliest days of our business, we have guided our clients with a triangle and it has been so successful that we could never dream of even slightly changing it.  It is called the Achievement Model and it contains three simple layers.  The bottom and largest layer is MINDSET.  The middle layer is PROCESS.  And the top layer is RESULTS.

Please read the entreQuest article published in SmartCEO for more information on the Achievement Model at this link:  http://www.entrequest.com/wp-content/pdf/entrequest_November_11.03pdf.pdf?phpMyAdmin=d2c4aa6766ft5760658.

So if MINDSET is the foundation for the PROCESSES that create RESULTS, and the desired result is a healthy state of being, then a food plan is a process to achieve such.  And it all must rest upon a mindset that is determined and focused. 

Bearing that in mind, what would entreQuest have done with the food pyramid?  Simple.  We would have consolidated every piece of it – grains, vegetables, fruits, proteins, dairy products, and “use sparinglys” into the middle layer because portion control and food choices are just processes.  Then we would have made the very top layer represent a healthy lifestyle since that is the stated goal.  Most importantly though, we would have established mindset as the base because if Americans do not really believe that they can become healthier, how can they ever change their bad habits into good ones and make the right decisions over the wrong ones?  Every single reminder and recommendation in the world for what leads to a healthy lifestyle could be tattooed to their hand but if they’re not bought into their mission, that hand could still reach for a dozen donuts with a side of French fries and a supersized milkshake when the cravings come a calling.  Without mindset, processes cannot result in achievement.

It’s the same with a business.  A leader can hire only Ivy League educated candidates and then equip them with only the fastest technology and present them with a perfect day-to-day strategy for performance improvement.  However these types of processes will do nothing if the team members have not made up their mind to better themselves and better their organization.   If employees are not compelled to be the cause of their own success and the success of their company then how can the company ever survive the uphill battle to achievement?  A bad economy or tough competition or even a bad day will deter even the most competent professional’s productivity if their mindset is not aligned to a greater mission.  For corporate growth to occur, each team member must make up his or her mindset to reach goals and live up to both their own potential as well as their company’s values.

The obvious question here is how do you compel your people to master their mindset?  We suggest to our clients that you help them understand the story they are a part of – the story of your company.  If they are not inspired by their company’s values, empowered by their company’s beliefs, and charged by their company’s mission, how can they ever be expected to be inspired, empowered, and charged enough to go through the proper processes and generate real results? 

Understanding the story is not a one-time deal.  It is an ongoing journey.  The most loyal following must still be constantly reminded of the mission at hand.  There are a lot of negative forces out there that will tempt people towards inaction, indifference, falter, and failure.  Like minds, mindsets tend to wander and therefore people must be refreshed about the WHY they are doing what they are doing.  Leaders, managers, and frontline staff members must remain motivated through consistently themed messaging in all programs and protocol throughout the company.  Growth is a process and it is a result but without mindset, growth will be neither.

That goes for healthy lifestyles too.  When Americans are motivated to believe in themselves and embody their success story, their mindset will drive the processes that deliver results.  Only unlike business, these results won’t be growth in the physical sense… 

Joe Mechlinski is the President of entreQuest and has partnered with countless leaders to effectively improve their team’s performance, their clients’ experience, and their company’s profits.

(*Information Sources: 

“USDA Food Pyramid Out:  Is the New Food Plate Better?” The Huffington Post.  Thursday 2 June 2011.  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/02/food-pyramid-usda_n_870375.html?view=screen.

“U.S. Obesity Trends.”  Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  Thursday 21 July 2011.  http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/trends.html.)

In November, a group of researchers will be publishing a study titled ”Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes” to prove that in the working environment – the higher the power, the less likely the collaboration effort.

To put it more bluntly, individuals in managerial or other leadership roles often dismiss their coworkers’ advice when making decisions.  Inflated confidence is the primary reason cited for this behavior.
 
We at entreQuest, and surely most professionals out there, have known this syndrome to be true for a long time.  When we conduct an assessment of our clients’ companies, quotes surface from employees such as “I don’t feel like my boss listens to me” or “They never ask me for my ideas” or “I know that if we did it another way, it would work.  But they’ll never try it.”
 
Most managers are in their positions because they have earned it through experience so it makes sense that they should trust themselves to make the right decisions and that they should be trusted when doing so.  However the difference that can be made in terms of morale, teamwork, and overall results is dramatic when leaders take the initiative to empower their staff and bring them into the decision making process.  It adds to the employee experience which directly adds to the client experience.  After all, when your employees feel they are experiencing something remarkable, they are much more invested into delivering something remarkable.  What adds up in the end is GROWTH.  That’s both growth of the business and growth of the individuals – especially those managers who will learn for the first time how much they can improve their own performance when they allow their coworkers to share in the decision making process.
 
A collaboration program that entreQuest is proud to implement in many of our clients’ internal operations is called Action Learning Projects (ALPs).  What the ALPs provide is a problem-solving model that can be used to engage teammates, develop leadership skills, and yield effective ideas to build a better business.  Employees are divided into smaller groups where each will work on an important issue – it could be a challenge hindering the employee experience or an unexplored opportunity to enhance the client experience or any type of matter the company deems critical.  After roughly 12 weeks of working together, the groups of employees then present their ideas – as a report, program, or strategy – to the leaders of their company and if they show potential, the ALP will be incorporated into daily operations.

Even if the group’s idea proves too impractical for implementation, the leaders can still take the group’s input into account and they should.  We usually we find that leaders discover important information about their company’s employee experience or client experience that can be extremely helpful if not immediately then later down the road.  As ALP expert and author Michael J. Marquardt says:  “Perhaps action learning’s greatest value is its capacity for equipping individuals, teams and organizations to more effectively respond to change.”
 
And, as a perk, if you happen to be a leader of a group of employees who end up being surveyed for another newsworthy study about whether or not their input is dismissed by their boss, you’ll stand out among the few that actually do value their people’s say on important issues and goals.  You’ll also be all the more likely to solve those issues and accomplish those goals because of your efforts to collaborate.

Joe Mechlinski is the President of entreQuest and has partnered with countless leaders to effectively improve their team’s performance, their clients’ experience, and their company’s profits.

(*Information Source: “Some Managers Just Won’t Take Advice” by Rachel Emma Silverman.  The Wall Street Journal.  Monday 19 September 2011.  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904103404576560800619224540.html?KEYWORDS=some+managers+just+won%27t+take+advice)

If you’ve ever been to Epcot in Disney World, then you can appreciate the value of culture.  Walk around the pavilions representing the World Showcase and your nostrils alone are in for an exciting ride from the scents of zesty marinara sauces out of Italy to the fresh baked buttery breads coming out of the ovens in France to the sesame oiled sautés simmering up in the woks of China to the poblano peppered plates flavoring up the fiestas in Mexico.  And that’s just food!  The clothing styles, architectural designs, literary themes, social etiquette practices, artistic patterns, and entertainment traditions are all equally important to the culture of each country.  Culture, therefore, is a reflection of the common interests of a community.  And thanks to the continuous efforts to honor what makes each of our communities unique, we humans are able to enjoy an exciting diversity of cultures today.

It is the same for companies.  We all have our own cultures.  Even the companies that provide exactly the same products and services are culturally different.  Look at airlines alone.  A recent survey in the Wall Street Journal showed that the majority of American travelers book their ticket based on price so the culture that airlines invite their customers to partake in only has so much room to fly, per se.  But there is a clear difference between the experience of Delta and the experience of Southwest for instance.  Conceivably they could fly the same Boeing models, bag the same brand of peanuts, and show the same movies.  However by the time of arrival, their passengers can easily compare the two airlines and a true cultural difference will be noted (especially those who listen up during the announcements – Southwest’s flight attendants and pilots crack enough jokes to be the in-flight entertainment themselves).

Go to each airline’s website and you will get a glimpse into their respective cultures right away.  Under “About Delta,” the airline summarizes itself as: “Delta Air Lines serves more than 160 million customers each year.  With its unsurpassed global network, Delta and the Delta Connection® carriers offer service to more than 350 destinations in nearly 70 countries on six continents.”

Under “Why Fly Southwest,” the airline simply answers:  “Great value.  Excellent service.  Our mission.  Fly Southwest because you want to be treated like a person.”

There is no doubt that Delta also aspires to treat each of its passengers like a person and it’s very likely Southwest aspires to lead an unsurpassed network of airways but the difference in their cultures results in different priorities and different tones.

Of course culture is not just about enticing visitors like the pavilions at Epcot or serving customers like the airlines, it’s also about inspiring your community of people to reach their full potential.  Only through creating a remarkable experience for your employees can you create a remarkable experience for your clients and ultimately experience remarkable growth.  To get there, leaders have to put clarity around exactly what their company’s mission, values, beliefs, and behaviors are.  These foundational aspects formulate the mindset of your team and therefore the success of your company so it is vital that the culture be honored consistently within your walls and outside them when facing clients and the community.

Whether the sales momentum is at an all-time high or sales are sinking to new lows, culture gives us a reference point.  It supports our continuous drive toward excellence and it refocuses us when we are not seeing the results we want to see.  If Norway is losing visitor traffic to Morocco at Epcot, the solution is not to dress their employees in Arab accessories and cook up a sandstorm of couscous.  Norway will have to consult its culture and creatively find ways to make itself better without changing what it stands for.  And there are always ways to deliver something better.

The same goes for airlines.  If, hypothetically, Delta is losing business to Southwest, their staff can’t paint their planes purple, orange, and red and try out an improv comedy act over the loudspeaker at takeoff.  Delta must remain true to itself and creatively find ways to better serve its 160 million customers each year.  And for a company that takes pride in carrying to more than 350 destinations, Delta should be completely capable of finding the right way.

Your company’s fuel and your company’s focus come from your company’s culture.  The solution always rests somewhere in your story.  Once you discover it, all you need to do is craft your processes and programs around it for a better operation and for better results.  Put clarity around your culture and your team will maintain all the fuel and focus it needs to succeed.

For more information on how “Clarity Breeds Success,” read the article entreQuest published in SmartCEO Magazine at this link:  http://www.entrequest.com/wp-content/pdf/07.06.ownersmanual.pdf?phpMyAdmin=d2c4aa6766ft5760658.

Joe Mechlinski is the President of entreQuest and has partnered with countless leaders to effectively improve their team’s performance, their clients’ experience, and their company’s profits.

(*Information Sources:

“About Delta.”  Delta Airlines.  http://www.delta.com/about_delta/index.jsp.

“Why Fly Southwest?”  Southwest Airlines.  http://www.southwest.com/html/why-fly-southwest/index.html?int=GFOOTER-DIFFERENCE-WHY-FLY-SWA.

“Carriers Keep Capacity in Check” by Doug Cameron and Jack Nicas.  The Wall Street Journal.  Wednesday 14 September 2011.  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903532804576568922672945908.html?KEYWORDS=airlines#articleTabs%3Darticle.)

The American auto industry is unique but in many ways it is no different than every one of our businesses.  Leaders of all types must find the right incentives to drive their teams towards success.  These incentives must be applicable enough to affect the entire organization but meaningful enough to inspire each individual.

Sadly, the Big Three auto makers are a living example of what happens when leaders fail to find the right incentives for their employees.  To put it bluntly, had these top men and women been able to deliver a remarkable employee experience to their people on their own, would there have ever been a need for the rise of the United Auto Workers union?  No, there wouldn’t have been since the UAW began in 1935 with the mission to fairly negotiate wages and benefits between the leaders and the labor.  So regardless of the specific details that mandated a third party to step in and arbitrate, it can be determined that something was clearly missing from the culture, mindset, and workforce processes inside General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler.

That something is what we at entreQuest believe to be the accountability moment.  It is how self-governance creates a winning sales culture.  The accountability moment technically describes the destination point – where the leaders’ corporate-level goals meet the employees’ individual-level goals to create a synergy of success for everyone involved in the business.  It takes a few steps to get there however.

First, the leaders must craft their story to succinctly and eloquently articulate the mission, values, behaviors, and vision that define their company.  Next, the managers must build their working relationships with their employees so that together they can determine what goals each individual should have and how they will align to company’s story.  Whether your employees show up to a corner office in a suit to make sales during elegant lunch meetings or they are wearing much more durable clothing to withstand the mechanical nature of their job, everyone in your organization is a person, not a robot.  Therefore they have their own personal drivers and their own unique desires.  Good managers will be able to help them realize that their own growth goals and their company’s growth goals can masterfully be accomplished together.  Finally, the employee must hold himself or herself accountable to reaching those goals or else the incentives of a monetary bonus or additional vacation time or whatever is being used to reward the employee will not be issued.  Obviously the manager is responsible for this piece too and he or she must provide ongoing support, coaching, and a fair aseessment of the employee’s performance.

Of course, there is a limit here.  Leaders and managers cannot play the roles of morality magicians.  It was Henry Ford who actually already tried to do that with the creation of his “sociological department” for the laborers at Highland Park factory in 1915.  Reverend Samuel Marquis, the sociological department’s head, stated its purpose was to be part of “a plan for the education of the working-men in thrift, honesty, sobriety, better housing, and better living generally.”  It sounded like a nice idea in theory, especially with an incentive like the earth-shattering announcement of “the five dollar workday” for blue collar workers, but in practice Ford Motor Co. actually hired investigators to go into the workers’ homes and survey their personal lives to identify flaws.  It’s no mystery why critics used ideas like “paternalism,” “feudal system,” and “treated like slaves or children” to describe the Ford employee experience back then, right?

We find at entreQuest that employees are generally harder on themselves than leaders might think.  Many of them want to perform well past even their boss’ highest standards.  They also take pride in living up to the values of their organization and contributing towards the team.  Leaders and managers who can leverage these fine qualities in their employees know that they will foster growth both for the business and for the employees themselves.  It’s a win-win situation.

These days both sides of the automobile industry are working hard to grow back to those glory days of the once flourishing Motor City.  Leaders are reassessing their goals, trimming their inefficiencies, and modernizing their offerings.  Unions are trying to find the fairest means for workers to earn and enjoy bonus structures, benefits, and profit share.   America waits and hopes that together these leaders and unions can create the culture, mindset, and workforce processes to result in a win-win situation.

For those of us running businesses that are not structured like those in the auto industry, we leaders still have a chance to be our own third party negotiators with our team members.  Every one of them too because no matter what trade we’re dealing in, our biggest potential salespeople are our indirect salespeople.  They might be answering phone calls at a customer service desk or adjusting heavy machinery on a factory floor but they are as much a business builder as your top account manager is.  It’s time to give them their accountability moment.

More information on the accountability moment can be found in an article published by entreQuest in SmartCEO magazine at this link:  http://www.entrequest.com/wp-content/pdf/0707ownersmanual.pdf?phpMyAdmin=d2c4aa6766ft5760658.

Joe Mechlinski is the President of entreQuest and has partnered with countless leaders to effectively improve their team’s performance, their clients’ experience, and their company’s profits.

(*Information Sources:

“Auto Talks Extended” by Matthew Dolan, Jeff Bennett, and Sharon Terlep.  The Wall Street Journal.  Wednesday 14 September 2011.  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904353504576568643214855166.html?KEYWORDS=auto+talks+extended.

“The People’s Tycoon:  Henry Ford and the American Century” by Steven Watts.  New York:  Vintage Books, 2005.

The United Auto Workers website.  www.uaw.org.)

The #1 priority of sales management is people development – that is to help each salesperson grow both individually and collectively as a team.  It’s through people development that we ultimately achieve our goals and generate results.

Do your salespeople make excuses for lack of results?  Worse yet, are your managers? 

“It’s the economy…”  “It’s the competition…”  “It’s because our prices are too high…”  The list of excuses could go on and on.

Which brings us to our other top priority as sales managers and that is ACCOUNTABILITY.

There can be no accountability as long as excuse making is tolerated at any level.  When there is a lack of accountability, there can be no growth.  If your sales team is not growing – meaning becoming more effective – then excuse making is likely one of the culprits.

Are there challenges that come up on the job and get in the way of goal attainment?  Sure, absolutely.  But there is a difference between circumstantial challenges and excuse making.  Growth requires accountability.  Therefore if we as sales managers don’t foster a culture of accountability, there can be no growth.  

One of the strategies that we sales managers use for eliminating excuse making and redirecting the sales team’s energy to where it needs to be is The Success Formula.  Sound familiar?  If you read “The Success Principles,” you’ll see it’s an idea borrowed from Jack Canfield.

The Success Formula

E + R = O

E stands for an “Event” or circumstance (i.e., the economy, the competition, your pricing, etc.)

R stands for your “Response” to the event or circumstance

O stands for your “Outcome” or result

Any Event + your Response to that event determines your Outcome or result.

When salespeople don’t get the outcome or result that they want, they tend to blame it on an event or a circumstance – or the economy… or the competition… or the pricing…  We can’t change the event – it is what it is.  So focusing on these circumstances is a waste of time and worse, it undermines accountability.

A better strategy is to have your sales teams focus on the one thing they can control – THEIR RESPONSE to these circumstances.  If your sales team is not getting the results that you and they would like, then stop the excuse making and change your response.  It will almost always get you a different and better result.

Good selling…

Mike Zaruba is a business consultant at entreQuest who has worked around the world with all types of organizations to create, implement, and lead effective sales management strategies at the executive, managerial, and frontline levels.