Reflections

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Reflections

We have written over the past three or four weeks about coaching and leadership. Perhaps it is time to reflect a bit on this.

It all starts with each of us wanting to do a good job. That comes from active and passive participation in the work that we do and the life that we live. Perhaps the work portion of our lives is the easier one. The life we live can be either very challenging or you become a victim of circumstances and you let those circumstances dominate your life. In other words, you give up on yourself. That goes to the Nike tag line “Just Do It.” Jimmy Valvano, when he was in the latter stages of his fight with cancer, gives us a better approach. “Never Give Up.” No matter what you face you can overcome it if you give it a good and honest fight. Learn more, train more, practice more, listen more, dream more, care more.

Eleanor Roosevelt is famous for her quote of “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” It always intrigues me as to why some people let that happen to them. Why is that?

Curiosity is another attribute that I believe is critical to our beings. We can learn through asking “why,” and children spend more than a year of their early lives doing nothing but ask that question. Quoting Ted Kennedy at the funeral of his brother Robert, “Some men see things as they are and say why. I dream things that never were and say why not.” This is something I believe we should take more to heart. Why do we do what we do? Why do we do things this way? How long have we done things this way? I came to an epiphany when I started studying change in a serious way. We are taught to resist change in every manner possible. From how we are parented with specific rules – don’t do that – to our schooling – this is how you do that – to our jobs – how we are taught to do our jobs. All of those lead us to be somewhat resistant to or suspicious of change. Japanese culture introduced me to Kaizen. Change everything you do, make it better or easier or more efficient, every day, if even just a tiny bit. That to me is a more reasonable approach to life.

Another aspect of leadership and coaching is that we must create followers before anything else will happen. That seems to be quite obvious but many of us fail at this when we start issuing mandates and “orders.” How many people will follow you because they want to if you are all about giving orders? Simon Sinek in his book “Leaders Eat Last” uses in the foreword a Lt General from the Marine Corps who describes meal time in the Marines. The enlisted men and served first and they eat first. Keep them happy and healthy and things will be alright.

I have a reading list on my consulting web site, www.rjslee.com, I call it the reading list for interested people. There are many wonderful books with incredibly meaningful suggestions and ideas to think about. Patrick Lenioni comes to mind with his books – The Three Signs of a Miserable Job and The Five Dysfunctions of a Team. Easy to read parables with incredibly helpful advice. There are many more books there to enjoy and learn from for interested people. There are also over twenty years of monthly columns, from Industry publications, on the parts and service and product support sales and marketing subjects.

However, in each of my classroom sessions I always ask how many have read a business book that will help them with their jobs. In the last month or quarter. Sadly, not many hands go up.
Another thing that I like to do at each class is to ask some questions. That is the Socratic method to teaching.

 What is the definition of Ignorance?
 What is the definition of Stupidity?
 What is the definition of Insanity?

This causes some difficulty for the room. Ignorance is not knowing what to do. Stupidity is knowing what to do and not doing it. Insanity is continuing to do with you have always done expecting different results. I then tell them that at the end of the class they will no long be ignorant because they will know what to do. I leave them with the last two choices – Stupidity or Insanity. No one in the room is insane so in truth I am challenging them to take advantage of what they have learned and do something with it. If they don’t, well, that is plain stupid, isn’t it?

The Time is NOW.

Coaching is Critical!

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Coaching is Critical

Leadership, which is a required aspect or skill of management, cannot be done successfully without the leader being a great coach. Being a great coach means that you are a terrific communicator. However, time becomes your enemy. You really will never have enough time to provide pertinent feedback to your direct reports. So how are we supposed to be able to be effective as coaches?

In the world in which we work and live there is too much going on. We are having to constantly upgrade our skills. This is true for us as managers, as well as for our support groups and teams. As a result of the time squeeze and the need to be constantly upgrading skills, sufficient time spent coaching employees is rare. This is an area that has found a good amount of study at Universities and Think Tanks. How do we continue to be able to lead and coach and keep current with skills? Harvard brings us the concept of what they are calling “a connector.”

HR leaders surveyed by Harvard found that they expected Management to spend 36% of their time developing their subordinates, their team members. But a survey within the same organizations with the management found them saying that they spent 9% of their time developing employees. This is a tricky result. More time coaching is not necessarily the answer.

Another survey by Gartner of 7,300 hundred employees and 100 HR managers asked “what are the best mangers doing to develop employees in today’s busy work environment?” They created four different categories of management.

1) Teaching Managers:
Coach based on their own knowledge. This is advice-oriented feedback to employee job performance.

2) Always-on Managers:
Provide continual coaching, it is part of their daily work. This category is typically in alignment with what HR executives think that management should be doing.

3) Connector Managers:
Provide targeted coaching. They constantly are assessing skills and provide specific coaching from the best coaches available. Not necessarily themselves.

4) Cheerleader Managers:
They are supportive. Providing positive feedback and have the employees in charge of their personal development.

The most common type is cheerleaders, which represents 29% of management. While the category representing the least followers was teaching at 22%. The splits are relatively the same.
So, let’s go back to the statement that more time coaching is not necessarily the answer. This survey by Gartner found that “there is very little correlation between time spent coaching and employee performance.” “It is less about quantity than quality.” This is pointing out a stark reality. It is time we start teaching managers how to “COACH.”

As I mentioned last blog we are in the process of creating a coaching class. We are aiming at providing learning on coaching that addresses building trust with team members, tapping into employee potential, creating employee commitment, and actually executing and meeting goals and objectives.

We have referenced the International Coaching Federation (ICF) which has published a set of ethical standards for coaches to build this class. They ask coaches to pledge to do the following

 Show genuine concern for the individuals’ welfare and future.
 Continuously demonstrate personal integrity, honesty and sincerity.
 Keep confidences.

More on that list will come in the weeks and months ahead.

The Time is NOW.

Coaching

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Coaching

We are constantly looking to our clients to help us determine what additional learning classes we should create. We get a lot of very good suggestions.

Recently, I was asked to create selling skills classes for service management and supervision, foremen and customer contact personnel. We are creating those classes now.

Another suggestion from our clients was regarding the management courses we offer. We have taught management and supervision now for over twenty years in the classroom, with webinars and most recently our internet-based classes. However, it was tied to the functions within the department. It was never “pure” management functions. That program is now under development.

Another learning area that was requested of us was coaching and mentoring. We were first approached with the need to help a specific individual with their management skills with their team. Communications skills were specifically requested, as well as leadership and trust. That was matched with another request to assist in the development of a new manager in a new job function.

It is always necessary to make changes in our programs based on what is needed in the “learning arena.” As our industry changes, I adapt as well.

Coaching is the subject I would like to explore more with you this week. Personal success is a common and constant pursuit for talented people, for curious people, for self-motivated individuals. Satisfaction comes form being able to tackle and overcome difficulties in our lives. As John Wooden said we he defined SUCCESS. “Success is the Peace of Mind, which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing that you made the effort to become the best you are capable of becoming.”

I have been telling the story in classrooms and in talks for a long time now about the individual who at sixteen years of age, let’s call him James, is told that they have POTENTIAL. That is a wonderful thing. It holds such promise and hope. Now I would like you to imagine that James is now sixty-six years of age and is still told he has a lot of potential. Shouldn’t the next question be “what have you been doing the past fifty years?”

Coaching is vey personal. It is working with individuals and helping them to reach their potential. A good definition of coaching is that the purpose of coaching is “unleashing or unlocking the potential of another human being.” Perhaps that sounds too overpowering to you. But that is what you do if you are coaching another person. You are helping them become better at what they do.

Gallup surveys everything and coaching is one of the subjects on which they have conducted surveys. Their surveys say that 30% of the people want coaching to help them with “life, purpose, vision, creativity and integrity.” That is a real mouthful, isn’t it?

At the end of the blog last week I stated that “I think we all can do much more in our lives and in our careers.” Sometimes that challenge overwhelms us. Don’t let that happen to you. Take up the challenge. Find a coach: someone you trust, someone you respect and someone who will be honest with you. Then get started. As the US Army commercial says “be all that you can be.”

The Time is NOW.

e-Learning

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e-Learning

Twenty years ago, in 1999, John Chambers, then CEO of CISCO Systems said, “Education over the internet is going to make email usage look like a rounding error.” The renowned Clairmont Professor and business guru thought that “Knowledge has to be improved, challenged, and increased constantly, or it vanishes.”

As those of you who read this blog know we are serious proponents of providing tools for employees whereby they can reach their potential. Learning to me is a lifelong pursuit. You really only start to learn once you leave the structured education system that we have in place. Too many people, however, act as if that is the end of their education.

We are extremely pleased to be in the final stages of certification by the IACET, the International Association of Continuous Education and Training. They have a very rigorous certification process that we have completed and are in the final review process. You will hear more on this in the near future when we get all of the documentation completed.

This is the final step in our platform for training in the Heavy Equipment, Light Industrial, Material Handling, Trailer, and Ground Water Industries with which we are associated. We will be the only certified company in these Industries in the world.

We ran a brief review of our offerings within the past month and it is quite substantial. We currently have around 90 people taking classes on line every day. We have enrolled over 600 people in the past two years. It is starting to take hold.

What we offer is an employee development structure for each job function in the Parts and Service world. We assist dealers and distributors and some manufacturers now in creating a learning path for specific jobs. A career path if you will. We are in the final stages of announcing our “badge” program.

The Physical Universities and Vocational Schools are the only ones who can provide a “parchment” that says University Degree. The internet-based learning world is “not allowed” to offer degrees. We offer and provide badges. In our programs the badges cover; Operations, leadership, Sales, and Finance. Each class earns a badge and after accumulating Badges taking classes there are four levels of achievement; Platinum, Gold, Silver and Bronze. Each student can share their learning results from us with their prospective employers which provides, we believe, a much more complete picture of the knowledge of each individual who has followed our programs.

A study done in 1000 by WR Hambrecht + Co called “Exploring a New Frontier” provided the following list of factors driving e-Learning:

• Rapid obsolescence of knowledge and training
• Internet access if standard at home and at work
• The need for just in time training.
• Technological advances enable interactive and media rich content.
• Efficient means to train a global or national work force
• Increasing bandwidth allowing more streamed content
• Increases in skills gap and demographic changes
• Growing selection of e-learning products and services
• Demand for flexibility for lifelong learning
• New standards to facilitate compatibility, usability of e-learning product
• Wide variety of topics addressing business objectives
• HR, Management, Customer Service and Compliance Topics
• Simple access point and integrated data
• AICC and SCORM standards for inter-operability

I believe that e-Learning is now starting to hit its stride. All of the above points are even more pronounced today.

We are hitting our stride as well:

 We have created our platform – the learning management system
 We have developed the products – over 112 different programs
 We are in the final stage of accreditation – IACET
 We are finalizing the recognition programs with our badges

Now it is time to sell the program and get more people learning on a daily basis.

We highlighted a quote from Peter Drucker at the outset of this blog “knowledge has to be constantly improving or else it vanishes.”

Where are you in your learning?

 Are you reading books and taking classes constantly?
 Or is your knowledge becoming dated and no longer current?

I think we all can do much more in our lives and in our careers. In fact, with the rapid rate of change in the world around us I believe it is absolutely critical for us to continue to learn. What do you think?

The Time is NOW.

Management Mentoring and Coaching Program Conclusion

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Management Mentoring and Coaching Program Conclusion

Last week, we covered the second portion of our tailored mentoring and coaching program with the instructional videos/skype sessions description.  This week, we cover the third, and final, portion of our individually tailored mentoring and coaching program.

For this final part of our program, we provide each manager with individual Work Assignments.

Establishing assignments is aimed at furthering the learning experience. Learning is about remembering and with these work assignments we can establish a deeper base of understanding. These assignments will be specific to the job function with which we are working. They will fit into the alternating weeks of the overall program. Implementation is a crucial element in committing knowledge to memory, thereby furthering the learning of each manager.  A key component in achieving any learning objective is in the implementation of the knowledge acquired.  These work assignments are designed to put that newly gained knowledge to work.

This approach will be discussed with the Company to develop a strategy which satisfies the needs of the Company, as well as the needs of the individual who will be the subject of the mentoring/coaching.

The program will continue weekly, alternating between a Learning On Demand program and then a film with work assignments injected at the appropriate time in the program. This will continue until the program is completed. This will be adjusted to satisfy the needs of the individual to be coached.

The price of this coaching/mentoring program will be established on a case-by-case basis. It will be dependent on the time involved and the assets utilized.

There you have it: our Management Mentoring and Coaching Programs.  Keep this in mind for those managers and supervisors you want to cultivate to become your heroes.

The time is now.

Management Mentoring and Coaching

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Management Mentoring and Coaching Program

A coach’s job is to bring out the best in the individual and the team.

We always work here to develop programs that fill needs within our industry.  We have now developed a mentoring and coaching program addressing client needs in the area of individual employee development. We were approached with the need to assist with individual managers in accelerating their development on the job. This also covered those instances where an employee was having difficulty in adjusting to a new role.

These programs have been divided into three pieces: Learning On Demand, Films and Work Assignments.  Over the course of this next week, we are going to tackle each of these pieces in an individual post.

Learning On Demand

The Learning On Demand programs consist of a pre-test, a video program and a final assessment. The course program itself lasts approximately two hours.  There will be discussions with the manager to review the program and to consider specific action items for the week ahead after the course has been completed.

We will recommend Specific Learning Programs – LOD – that apply to the work of the manager. For instance:
1. Basic Management
2. Leadership
3. Make It Matter
4. Time Management
5. Change
6. The Art of the Possible
7. Standards of Performance
8. Best Practices
9. The Balanced Scorecard
10. Activity Based Management

These programs will be enhanced, and the individual learning and knowledge deepened, with individualized coaching to follow up on the classes.  In addition, Ron tailors live online coursework for each manager who is taking a Mentoring and Coaching program.

Next, we will cover the learning films that Ron uses to build upon the knowledge in the online courses.

The time is now.

Breaking Down Territory Management

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Breaking Down Territory Management

In our training programs, we work hard to de-mystify the details of selling.  Today, I am sharing a small piece from our Territory Management Learning On Demand program.

The time is now.

Personal Responsibility – Part 2

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Personal Responsibility – Part 2

If you remember my last post, I left off with the challenges that face us when we move into the realm of teaching and learning as adults.  Open-mindedness is a critical component of the entire process, and we become more “set” in our ways with each passing year.

That brings me back to Peterson. His most recent book is “12 Rules for Life – an Antidote to Chaos.” (I strongly urge everyone to read this book) One of his rules is “Assume that the person you are listening to might know something you don’t.” If you start out in a learning situation wouldn’t it be nice if each learning had the attitude that you should pay attention because the person doing the teaching might knew things that the students did not know.

So, for adult education, which is what we are doing at learning Without Scars, we have an audience of students who already know a fair amount about subject matter we are covering. It is our job to provoke their thinking to take them to places of learning that they didn’t think they needed to go. And we measure our success with assessments through the classes and at the conclusion of each class.

We require each student to achieve an 80% mastery level before they can go on to the next class. Of course, in my opinion, they should all achieve 100% as we do not limit the number of times they can go through the class.

Which then takes me to personal responsibility.

Each of us is responsible for ourselves. We are all responsible for our position in life; our education, our personal status, our parenting, our life skills, our work skills, out interests. We are responsible for a lot of “stuff.” So, when you look in the mirror, which is a dangerous thing to do, I want you to ask a question of yourself – “am I doing the best I can?”

Now please remember, the person in the mirror is the easiest person in the world to lie to – juts don’t do it.

As Peterson puts it in one of his other rules – “Compare yourself to who you were yesterday, not to who someone else is today. And one last rule – Pursue what is meaningful (not what is expedient) Did I say it was a terrific read?

 

I will wrap up the topic of Personal Responsibility this week.

The time is NOW.

The Parts Business Going Forward

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The Parts Business Going Forward.

Let me ask a few questions, of you, if I might:

  • What does your future in the parts business look like?
  • Is it a continuation of what you are doing now?
  • Are the results you are experiencing satisfying for you personally?
  • Is that the best you can do?
  • If you can do more what is holding you back?

By now you’re probably thinking, “WOW. That isn’t fair. You ask tough questions.”

Here is something to consider. If you continue to do what you have been doing you are facing extinction. That is a fact. I am 100% in agreement with that statement. Are you?

Let’s have a look at what goes on today. The phone rings or someone walks into your store, what many of you call your branch. An employee, in your parts department, if they aren’t already busy, will greet the customer. They will then proceed to determine what the customer needs. What is the customer doing? Rarely is that question asked. Would that question be helpful? Of course, it would be helpful. Then the parts employee will open up his computer system, if the parts employee knows who the customer is they can proceed to open a parts sales order. If they don’t know the customer they have to ask. And then they find the customer on their business system and then proceed to open a parts sales order.

How about processing parts orders for the service group? Does your technician walk to a back counter? Then a parts employee and the technician determine what parts are required for the work? Or perhaps the technician calls into the parts department and the process is similar to a customer parts sales order. Does the technician order their own parts using an electronic catalogue of the parts and service manuals and enter their parts orders to your business system themselves?

How about an instore display area? Do you have one? How do you operate the instore area? What is the number of customers coming in to your store on a daily/weekly basis to place parts orders? How many parts are sold from the instore displays on a daily/weekly basis?

Finally, we come to the internet. Do you have a facility that will allow your customers to place their orders online? How often are customers looking at your web site? How many customers check on your parts inventory availability? How many customers check your prices online? Do you allow your customers to have access to an electronic catalogue? Do you allow your customers to have access to service manual information online? How many customers place orders online through your website on a daily/weekly basis? Does your business system provide statistics on the number of customers visiting daily/weekly? How about price checks on the same frequency? How about availability checks for the same frequency? If a customer checks prices and availability but does not place an order does your business system notify the parts department daily on which customers were involved? Does a parts employee call the customer when that happens and determine what the customer was looking for and if they in fact found what they needed?

I guess the real question is “Are you working in the business or on the business?”

Perhaps even more directly are you in the order processing business or the selling business?

Or finally, are you in the parts business or the part number business?

The answer to these many questions should provoke some serious thinking.

As Jack Welsh used to say “when the world around you are changing at a rate faster than you are …. The end is near.”

The decisions you make will be with you for a long, long time.

The Time is NOW.

Simple Steps to Big Results

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In our Industry, what is it that we DO?  What is the action that is involved in creating employee and customer satisfaction?  There are simple steps we can take to gain big results.

Employee satisfaction requires knowing what to do – if an employee can measure their own job performance, there is a sense of a job well done.  It may seem obvious, but it is worth mentioning: we all have to know what our job entails.  We need to know what it is that we DO!

This spills over into creating customer satisfaction, because the simple steps each of our heroes will take every day will be what sets us apart to our customers.  We become their partners in business, instead of a vendor or supplier.

There are simple steps to take, to gain those big results.

The time is now.