Coaching Questions to Reach High Performance
Tonight’s blog post about coaching questions to reach high performance comes from our guest writer, Floyd Jerkins.
A coach can only be effective if someone wants to be coached. Frankly, that’s not entirely true. Some coaches live with the myth that someone always listens when they speak. Well, that’s also not quite true.
A coach constantly gauges how much input to give versus listening or asking questions to develop high performance. Professional sports players listen best when they are committed to producing an outcome beyond what they know how to do. It is the very same in the business world.
Can You Benefit by Using an Executive Coach?
When someone approaches me with interest in my coaching services, there are questions about what makes me a qualified coach. I’ve been doing this work for many years quite successfully, so it doesn’t take long to answer their questions.
After some casual exchange, my natural curiosity wants to know who you are, but more prescribed questioning is needed. I am not there to judge, analyze, or otherwise render an opinion. All this dialog focuses on designing a learning pathway.
Edward DeBono said it well in his book, Parallel Thinking, “Digging for gold is not the same as designing and building a house. Analysis and judgment are not enough when there is a need to design a way forward.”
Getting Started Is Easy
We establish a coaching contract because we must have this written to clearly describe the expected performance and the frequency and duration of the sessions. This is an important step to take because it spells out expectations and the timing milestones.
The first step is to figure out where you are and why. Then we look at where you want to be and what you want to accomplish. There is typically a “gap” between these two that allows insight into the behaviors that got you where you are.
To say that by looking into your past we can predict your future, is partially correct. If you don’t change how you make decisions, your future will be similar to your past. A good coach is a stimulus to make behavioral and attitude changes. My type of coaching approach alters your future.
Humans are a creature of habits that ultimately make up how we think, eat, talk, and above all, how we make conscious and unconscious decisions. Creating new habits isn’t always easy. I’ve seen people make functional changes almost instantly in their lives. Being told you have cancer can become life altering immediately. I’m more so talking about experiencing positive realizations that propel you forward in your life—essentially taking control of your life.
Pointed Questions to Discover Direction
What desired outcomes must be achieved between now and our next session to move you towards your objectives? This is an important question and one that can sometimes be tough to answer, especially if I keep asking it until the answers are specific. More often than not, just asking the question opens up ideas and possibilities.
What specific activities will you need to perform to accomplish your objectives? I’ve noticed that people often create a list of things to do. Too many times, these actions are tasks more than specific activities.
Why do you think these actions will achieve the outcome you’ve stated? How and when will it be accomplished, and who else must be included in this plan? These questions and, more importantly, the answers are super important in measuring success.
Wishful Thinking or True Change?
During the next call, we explore what happened between calls. At this stage, helping us both know the rationale behind the words becomes important to understand. I’ve often had clients say they do things or take actions but don’t know why; it’s just what I do they say. Other times their rationale doesn’t match up to the objectives. Getting behind the “why” you do what you do helps to make better decisions in the future. I firmly believe you can design your future.
Tom Landry, coach of the Dallas Cowboys, said, “A coach is someone who tells you what you don’t want to hear and has you see what you don’t want to see, so you can be who you have always known you could be.”
During these calls, the realities start to reveal themselves. The time milestones between the coaching contacts allow the individual to perform based on what they say they will do. We are beginning to uncover fact or fiction at this point. I like to say that the entire situation is now “unfolding,” and together, we design the next steps in your pathway.
Internally I am asking myself, what other resources do they need? Is my coaching what they really need? Is the original plan designed to move forward on track, or does it need adjusting? Can they take hearing the truth, or do they just want to hear false kindness?
I think Coach Landry said it really well. Sometimes, a coach’s role isn’t to be the friend who only tells you how great you are. Holding up the mirror of truth and then listening closely normally reveals if the coach needs to ask more questions or is it time to give input. Once the light goes on, and the ears are open, that’s when sweeping changes occur. I love the journey and exploration.
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Go Live Success!
Go Live Success!
Tonight, guest writer Christ Kohart shares the ins and outs of how to succeed at ERP in Go Live Success.
How to Succeed at ERP despite what you’ve read!
Time to upgrade your dealer business system (ERP)? In a continuing series, this question was recently asked of you. If you answered ‘Yes’ or ‘Maybe,’ the following information is for you. Approached wisely and thoughtfully by both the dealership and the ERP provider, an ERP upgrade will reap the rewards starting with day one. This article will share one of the best practices that delivered positive experiences for those well-prepared dealerships (and for their business partners). The dealership that provided the bullets below had a successful go-live and continues to thrive on its ERP.
Here are a few improvements experienced shortly after going live on the new ERP:
How were these results apparent so quickly? Preparation, research, planning, establishing metrics, training, and execution. As with anything we approach, properly planned new endeavors have a much higher chance of success than when planning was only at a high level. This article will look at the importance of reviewing processes you use throughout the dealership and then the subsequent implementation of standard processes throughout your dealership.
At this dealership, during the early stages of transformation (before committing to a specific ERP), there was extreme pushback from staff regarding the number of processes requiring review and standardization. There is still the thought process in our industry that “we’ve been successful for decades doing it this way, why change?” I’m going to continue those out who do not standardize processes now, whether or not the dealership is considering digital transformation. Why? If you do not embrace standard processes throughout the dealership, you are not creating consistent, repeatable (and reliably reportable) results. This same dealership demonstrated the fortitude to thoroughly review 300 processes across all business areas (Accounting, Sales & CRM, Rental, Product Support). At the start, many processes had not been standardized between departments (such as purchasing) and locations (“every branch has their individual way of doing it”). At the end of this endeavor, the dealership had created a solid purchasing and purchase approval process and standardized operational processes across their branch network. The first result realized before selecting an ERP: The dealership had the documentation necessary to establish metrics used during the ERP selection process. The second result: The dealership solved their difficulty in capturing and correctly categorizing purchases, whether for internal consumption, resale on a work order (how many times have you received an invoice for outside work & materials long after a work order was closed and invoiced without the charges?), or components that should have been capitalized vs. expensed when installed on prime products?
Let’s address each bullet point and how cleaning up and standardizing their processes affected the outcome after going live:
While only one of many steps, it’s incredible how vital the “boring” process becomes when running your business. It’s imperative to undertake this review if you want to have excellent odds to succeed when you go live.
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The Digital Dealership – Where Are We Now?
The Digital Dealership – Where we are now?
Guest writer Mets Kramer updates us on where we are now in this continuation of his series on The Digital Dealership.
Next week, at the AED Summit in Orlando, I’ll be presenting the Digital Dealership concept in the education series. During the hour we’ll have a chance to dive more deeply into some of the topics I’ve presented over the past year. Even more exciting, we’ll get to have open discussion.
The Digital Dealership will focus on the transformative impact of information, expectations and the new channels of engagement with customers and your audience.
Over the past 2 decades we’ve seen a massive shift in the business models of many different industries. We’ve also seen the impact of a changing demographics as new generations come into the working world and as the world of digital communication broadens. The result is a growing gap between the old approach to business, and the younger generations. The old approach to business was built by the older generations who are also, frequently the most senior managers. The newer generations, who are often the buyers, have their own expectations on how they want to carry out business. This collision of generation, technology and expectation creates both the most significant opportunity to differentiate and grow, and the highest risk to existing dealerships. In the past decade alone, we have seen major retailers and corporations lose decades or even a century’s foothold in their industry. Gone are companies like Borders and Blockbuster, and JCPenney almost joined them. Numerous others have simply failed to keep up and been relegated to the margins. Each of these companies failed to react to clear changes in the industry and buyer expectations, while their competitors did.
There are clear differences between the companies that failed or succeeded. Those that succeeded have several things in common. First, they saw the change in the market and buyer’s expectations and changed their business model to address these changing conditions. Second each of these companies started to understand the importance of information to their business and learned how to apply it. Finally, these companies applied these first 2 points to their entire business, they didn’t make it a bolt on to their existing business, which remained operating in the old way.
The first point is probably the hardest to grasp as it’s a combination of 2 inputs each effecting the other to produce an exponential rate of change in buyer expectations. In today’s business world we have 3-4 generations comprising our teams. With some of the last Baby Boomers still in the work force and often in the most senior positions, Gen X is now well placed throughout organizations, the Millennials are getting a strong foot hold in decision making and now Gen Z is entering the workplace. All this means we have some people who started in the corporate world before any computers existed and, at the same time, we have new entries into the business who have only known a world with smartphones and internet. How these different generations see the realm of possibilities couldn’t be farther apart. I’ll admit, I’m in the generation that thinks if the internet goes down, in a store, they should switch to handwritten bills and take cash, but that makes me old. Some people have never seen this type of POS terminal, it’s completely foreign, so they would avoid a store that still uses it. Furthermore, our youngest generations have always been able to find the information they needed, when ever they wanted. When they wanted something, they can order it from their phone. This collision of generational experience gap and changing expectations will drive the fastest change in business to business buying and business process we have ever seen. Change we’re already seeing in other industries.
Information has both contributed to the prediction of change and the resetting of expectations in all areas of commerce. Many of the most admired and referenced companies in our world have been the best at applying information and technology to their business, vaulting them over competitors, or blasting from obscurity to relevance. Information, and more importantly the analysis and application of information, has allowed organizations to foresee changes in the business. They have fine tuned their operations to trim waste and better apply capital. Furthermore, the analysis has driven action and change. Change in how companies engage with their customers and meet their customers’ growing expectations. While personal relationships and partnership remain a cornerstone of any business relationship, the expectation for partnership now includes deeper integration and focus on improving the transactional efficiencies. Information has inspired a massive improvement in understanding the drivers in a buyer’s decision making. It has highlighted the small differences in presentation and product definition that impact sales. The best competitors have combined this insight with a growing database of customer data to capture increases in total sales and market share.
When the acceleration of changing expectations come together with information, we see the genetics of the best of the best organizations. Those “Most Admired”. These organizations have used the information they are collecting daily to see the growing rate of change coming from new generations, and new expectations fueled by technology, social media and digital systems. They apply this analysis to all aspects of the business, changing the structure of the organization. In some industries we’ve seen long standing businesses either change or be replaced by new entrants who understand what a modern organization need to be. For dealers in our industry, both mainline OEM and independents, it’s no longer adequate to meet these changes with partial measures. Your website can no longer be a billboard, your social media engagement can’t just be advertising, your parts department can’t remain a “call for availability” or a “call to place an order” department. Your sales department won’t survive on “call for details”. The growing rate of changing expectations is your opportunity to succeed.
Each one of you have no doubt worked with family-owned contractors that saw a change in generational management. The original owner handing the business to their children came not just with a change of faces but came with changes in the approach to business relationships, focus of the business and new expectations on your role and how to be a partner.
The Digital dealership looks at all these items in more details. We will also look at actions any dealer can take to assess the impact of these changes in their business. We will look at what actions can be taken to implement new approaches to the business and remain a leading competitor in the field.
If you’re going to AED, I look forward to seeing you in the Digital Dealership session, and if you’re not, I’ll continue to develop the details in this blog series.
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Some Thoughts About 2022
Some Thoughts About 2022
As is pretty normal at this time of year there are many “experts” and “analysts” who provide us with their thinking about the coming year. Interest Rates, Inflation, Unemployment, GDP, labor Participation Rates and so on. Several of these “white papers” have got my attention.
More than at any previous time we need to move to the “contactless” shopping world. The internet. This is in part due to the ease of use that exists in internet-based shopping. It is simple and easy. How do you stack up against your competitors or the Retail Giants such as Amazon and Walmart? Did you know you can purchase OEM parts from Amazon?
What does your Parts Internet-Based Ordering System look like? What is the pricing policy for on line purchases? How will you handle returns?
Following on to the Internet-Based business your price point should not be the same as either telephone or walk in business. Your costs to support the internet business as not as high. The customer becomes a “Co-producer” with you. The telephone selling function for the parts department can be done from home WFH. It can be done on a part time basis. It can be done by people who have retired. Something to think about, isn’t it?
Labor as a service is a becoming trend. Our work force is aging. Retirement at 65 seems to have become a wistful thought. More people are working into their 70’s than ever before. Our technicians are in scarce and very rare supply. There are job functions that can be performed by “labor on demand” staffing. Next week I need to perform one hundred and twenty-four 500-hour maintenance services. I can assign that work to a part time employee. Something to think about, isn’t it?
There are some studies (Ardent Partners) suggesting that “nearly half of the U.S. workforce will be comprised of non-employee and agile talent in 2021.
This changes your cost structure in a major way.
With technology allowing WFH through tools such as Microsoft Teams and Zoom and Skype and others we do not need to “drive” or “fly” to meet with each other. This will require us to re-examine communications. To maintain Company Culture means to be able to continue to be transparent to every employee no matter where they are working, either in a store or in their home. This will provoke a major reduction in costs.
The pressure on our customers to make money will become more severe than ever before. It is estimated that the cost of operations for Contractors has gone up by 30% (Gary Bartecki in ConstructionPros). In the same article Gary notes that the Average Contactors we asked to provide bids on nonresidential projects. They came in at 13% higher. The contractors have not yet realized the serious nature of the change in their cost structure. This will be turning up in the relationship they have with their dealer suppliers.
This is true at the same time as new equipment is in seriously short supply. Simultaneously Used Equipment prices have increased dramatically at the same time as supply dwindles.
Dealers will be asked to assist their contractor customers at a time with a lot of risk for everyone. This is at a time of serious supply chain challenges, price inflation at its highest level in four decades and skilled labor in scarce supply. This is a tough one and simply the doorway to what is coming at us.
Since October 2021 we have been experiencing the highest level of job separations that we have seen in decades. Employees are changing jobs at a rate in excess of 3% of the workforce. How you work with your critical employees, the ones that I call your “heroes” will make a large difference. Do you truly value these customer facing employees? Do they know it and feel it and see it? Do you ask for their input on issues? Do you give them a voice that they feel is heard? Are they “empowered to make decisions on their own? Are they being compensated at the proper levels? Do you conduct performance reviews with your workers? Is there a career development, a career path, structure in place?
These Five items are but my selection from a much larger list. Each of them has merit. Each of them requires thought and then action. Do you have employees that are available to study these items who have to fit this work into their normal job or do you have employees who are tasked with keeping up with the market changes? We have fallen into a bad habit of expecting too much from each employee. We have overworked the talented people who give us everything they have on a daily basis. That in part is why the separation rate is as high as it is. The temptation to continue to do what you have always done, what Einstein called insanity, is high and very powerful. Most dealership are making more money than they ever have. Business during the Pandemic has actually been pretty good for most dealers. But please remember the old adage – Bulls and Bear make Money. Pigs get fattened and Hogs get slaughtered. Which animal most closely resembles you? Think about it.
The Time is Now.
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Friday Filosophy v.01.07.2022
Friday Filosophy v.01.07.2022
Alexander Graham Bell was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. His family was known for teaching people how to speak English clearly (elocution). Both his grandfather, Alexander Bell, and his father, Alexander Melville Bell, taught elocution. His father wrote often about this and is most known for his invention and writings of Visible Speech.[1] In his writings he explained ways of teaching people who were deaf and unable to speak. It also showed how these people could learn to speak words by watching their lips and reading what other people were saying.
Alexander Graham Bell went to the Royal High School of Edinburgh. He graduated at the age of fifteen. At the age of sixteen, he got a job as a student and teacher of elocution and music in Weston House Academy, at Elgin in Morayshire. He spent the next year at the University of Edinburgh. While still in Scotland, he became more interested in the science of sound (acoustics). He hoped to help his deaf mother. From 1866 to 1867, he was a teacher at Somersetshire College in Bath, Somerset.
In 1870 when he was 23 years old, he moved with his family to Canada where they settled at Brantford, Ontario. Bell began to study communication machines. He made a piano that could be heard far away by using electricity. In 1871 he went with his father to Montreal, Quebec in Canada, where he took a job teaching about “visible speech“. His father was asked to teach about it at a large school for deaf mutes in Boston, Massachusetts, but instead he gave the job to his son. The younger Bell began teaching there in 1872. Alexander Graham Bell soon became famous in the United States for this important work. He published many writings about it in Washington, D.C.. Because of this work, thousands of deaf mutes in the United States of America are now able to speak, even though they cannot hear.
Bell’s genius is seen in part by the eighteen patents granted in his name alone and the twelve that he shared with others. These included fifteen for the telephone and telegraph, four for the photophone, one for the phonograph, five for aeronautics, four for hydrofoils, and two for a selenium cell.
In 1888, he was one of the original members of the National Geographic Society and became its second president.
He was given many honors.
Some of his thoughts and words were very powerful:
The Time is Now.
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What is True Success?
What is True Success?
In our lives we are all involved in work, our jobs, as well as our families. That gives us both the professional and personal aspects of our lives. Many of you know I have referenced Tom Morris and his books, in particular True Success, A Philosophy of Excellence and Plato’s Lemonade Stand. They are both very helpful in our lives. I have referenced them many times.
Everyone seems to have some formula for us to follow to achieve success. Some are about market share, or customer service, or parts availability or labor efficiency. However, let me ask a question. These measures, while extremely important, do they make you successful? Is that how you define your success? I don’t think so.
I still remember, as if it were yesterday, when I was looking for my first job after finishing my university career – what was it that I wanted to do? What was my passion? What excited me? I had no clue. I was too young and I had no real-life experiences from which to make the choices necessary. From where I am now, I wonder how it is that we are supposed to be able to answer these questions. My grandchildren are in Gen Z. Recently at a family meal, I asked them both what they wanted to do. My grandson is a Junior in High School. He has many things that he is interested in and cannot make a selection yet. My granddaughter who is a Senior in University has a little more clarity. She is taking Biology with a focus on Genetics. It would seem clear that she has a path she is following. Yet it is clear that nothing could be further from the truth. She doesn’t know yet either. One of the troubles today is that there are so many choices. I always told (and still tell) people, particularly when I was teaching Education at University, that everyone should leave their options open as long as possible. When I was out looking for work the people that influenced my life – my parents, teachers, advisors, and counsellors all told me the same thing. Take your time. Whatever you choose that will be where you will work for the rest of your life. That was 1968. Things have definitely changed.
Today the average number of jobs that an individual will have over the work life for men is 12.5 jobs and women 12.1 jobs. It takes that many before a person can make their own selection of their life’s work. But then we still have the question that needs to be answered. What is success? Is it status in the community? Is it money? Is it your job title? I submit to you it is happiness.
For this particular subject I have to turn to psychology and psychiatry. Those two particular disciplines deal with the human experience in many ways. From the challenges that various groups of people have in learning or reading or concentration to depression and other human issues they have more knowledge than most in what success means.
I am currently reading a book, What Happy People Know, by Dan Baker, PhD, Director of the Life Enhancement Program at Canyon Ranch (This is a pioneering wellness resort which helps people make a lasting transformation that inspires people to find their “well way of life) and Cameron Stauth. The book cites research that has shown that the root of unhappiness – fear – lies in the oldest, reptilian part of our brains, and negative reactions are often dictated by primal instincts. In other words, we are “hard wired” for hard times. Over the past twenty-one months, since March of 2020, we have experienced hard times. This has been a very challenging time. We are all hoping that 2022 will bring us more positivity.
The book is designed to help us, and it has helped me, to understand that in order to be successful – we have to be happy. The authors give you a road map to happiness by breaking down the elements and qualities of Happiness. You get a very detailed description of how each of these qualities can be influences in your life in the book. I am simply listing them here now:
Of this list of a dozen elements, I relate to many. Let me focus on Purpose first. Without a Sense of Purpose, you will flounder. Most of you, by now, understand that our purpose, at Learning Without Scars, is to help people identify their individual potential and then we provide tools to allow them to realize their potential. Many of you will see that purpose as a difficult of not an impossible mission. Obviously, we have a different view on that. One of my fundamental beliefs is that “Everyone wants to do a good job.” This is followed with the fact that “everyone can do more than they think they can.” Put those two facts together and you see the seeds of understanding individual potential.
One of the challenges many of us face is that we get “stuck.” We get stuck in our jobs, in an Industry, a Company, a department. We are stuck and unfulfilled, and bored, and clearly, we are not challenged. But we need the job and don’t want to move, because we don’t think we can replace the job. We are anxious, we are afraid. Whenever I find this situation, I ask the question “What would you do if you weren’t afraid?”
There is a fresh question for me to consider in the book. “Am I living a life I love?” Perhaps that is a little too theoretical for most of you. But think about that. Isn’t that a terrific question to be asking yourself? Of course, it is. There is an interesting aspect to this question and the work of these authors. They always, every time, provide something that each person has to do. Some action. This is not simply a theoretical exercise. They are trying to create a perspective of success. Of happiness. Nothing is allowed to get in the way. For instance, many of us will use our health or bad habits as a “reason” that we can’t do something. They do not accept that excuse. They give us a perspective to consider with an interesting quotation. “Health is the optimal condition of being that allows for the ultimate engagement in life.” If you smoke or are overweight, they suggest you make the best of that reality. No excuse and no reason for inaction. It seems that there is a trigger when we leave our fear behind and pursue a life we love. I strongly suggest that everyone read this book. I think it could make a difference in your life.
This is the ultimate place to ask that age old question “What If?” Can you improve your life? Your job performance? Your family life? Your relationships? I am by nature an optimist. I know the answer to these questions for my life. Of course, I can. I just need to start. To take some action. To get on the path to success. Care to join me?
The Time is Now.
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Friday Filosophy v.12.31.2021
Friday Filosophy v.12.31.2021
Paulo Coelho de Souza; was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and attended a Jesuit school. At 17, Coelho’s parents committed him to a mental institution from which he escaped three times before being released at the age of 20. Coelho later remarked that “It wasn’t that they wanted to hurt me, but they didn’t know what to do… They did not do that to destroy me, they did that to save me.” At his parents’ wishes, Coelho enrolled in law school and abandoned his dream of becoming a writer. One year later, he dropped out and lived life as a hippie, traveling through South America, North Africa, Mexico, and Europe and started using drugs in the 1960s.
Upon his return to Brazil, Coelho worked as a songwriter, composing lyrics for Elis Regina, Rita Lee, and Brazilian icon Raul Seixas. Composing with Raul led to Coelho being associated with magic and occultism, due to the content of some songs. He is often accused that these songs were rip-offs of foreign songs not well known in Brazil at the time. In 1974, by his account, he was arrested for “subversive” activities and tortured by the ruling military government, who had taken power ten years earlier and viewed his lyrics as left-wing and dangerous. Coelho also worked as an actor, journalist and theatre director before pursuing his writing career.
Coelho married artist Christina Oiticica in 1980. Together they had previously spent half the year in Rio de Janeiro and the other half in a country house in the Pyrenees Mountains of France, but now the couple reside permanently in Geneva, Switzerland. In 1986 Coelho walked the 500-plus mile Road of Santiago de Compostela in northwestern Spain. On the path, he had a spiritual awakening, which he described autobiographically in The Pilgrimage. In an interview, Coelho stated “In 1986, I was very happy in the things I was doing. I was doing something that gave me food and water – to use the metaphor in The Alchemist, I was working, I had a person whom I loved, I had money, but I was not fulfilling my dream. My dream was, and still is, to be a writer.” Coelho would leave his lucrative career as a songwriter and pursue writing full-time.
While trying to overcome his procrastination about launching his writing career, Coelho decided, “If I see a white feather today, that is a sign that God is giving me that I have to write a new book.” Seeing one in the window of a shop, he began writing that day. The following year, Coelho wrote The Alchemist and published it through a small Brazilian publishing house that made an initial print run of 900 copies and decided not to reprint it. He subsequently found a bigger publishing house, and with the publication of his next book Brida, The Alchemist took off. HarperCollins decided to publish the book in 1994. Later it became an international bestseller.
His work has been published in more than 170 countries and translated into eighty-three languages. Together, his books have sold 320 million copies. On 22 December 2016, Coelho was listed by UK-based company Richtopia at number 2 in the list of 200 most influential contemporary authors.
The Time is Now.
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What’s Next?
What’s Next?
As 2021 winds down it is time for some reflection and some contemplation. What have we been able to get done in 2021 and what is next for us in 2022?
There has been a lot of confusion this year, wouldn’t you say? Politically, economically, and socially. Perhaps many of us ourselves have been confused. At Learning Without Scars we have been very busy.
Now that is a Dozen Items to contend with and it is a list that we take a lot of pride in sharing with you. Ross Atkinson has been a large part of this work and we are most appreciative of having him participating with us in our business. I would like to extend our most sincere thanks to Norma Robbins and Louise Duranleau for their work in providing us the translations and audio tracks for the job function assessments and subject specific classes. And finally, to Caroline Slee-Poulos for her untiring work on working with IACET and completing our accreditation after nearly three years of work. My thanks to all of you.
Yet there are miles to go before we rest.
While we are getting all of that done, we also intend to have thousands of individuals take Job Function Assessments and enroll in Subject Specific Classes.
We would not be in the position we are now, of being the supplier of the most comprehensive list of training products and employee development programs in the industry, were it not for the invaluable assistance we have received from you, our clients. Your suggestions and questions are all taken seriously and without your input and involvement we would never have gotten this far down the road. From our start with Quest Learning Centers in 1994, which provided Classroom Programs and Webinars, to Learning Without Scars, which is focused on Internet Based Learning we have depended heavily on your support.
Our purpose as a business is very simple.
We provide complementary resources to assist each individual to find their potential with blogs, podcasts, audio learning, suggested reading lists, newsletters and job function assessments. Then we give each person a pathway to achieving their potential through the use of Skill Level Pathways. To the thousands of you who have taken assessments and classes with us we say thank you. We know you are making a difference in your lives both personally and professionally through your commitment to excellence. We wish you all the success that you are dreaming about in your life. Your individual happiness is a true sign of a successful life. Thank you as well.
I want to close this blog, our last for the year, with a quotation from our Mascot, “Socrates.”
Socrates Says – Employ your time in improving yourself by other men’s writings, so that you shall gain easily what others have labored hard for.
The Time is Now.
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Friday Filosophy v.12.24.2021
Friday Filosophy v.12.24.2021
Socrates (469 BC – 399 BC) was one of the greatest Greek philosophers. He did not propose any specific knowledge or policy. He showed how argument, debate, and discussion could help men to understand difficult issues. Most of the issues he dealt with were only political on the surface. Underneath, they were moral questions about how life should be lived. Such is the influence of Socrates that philosophers before him are called the Presocratic philosophers. Socrates made enemies, three of whom brought charges against him. Socrates was tried for his life in 399 BC, found guilty, and put to death by drinking hemlock (a herbal poison). The story of his trial and death is the subject of a tract by Plato which is called the Apologia.
Most of what we know about Socrates comes from the works of Plato, who was his pupil. Socrates lived in the Greek city of Athens. His method of teaching was to have a dialogue with individual students. They would propose some point of view, and Socrates would question them, asking what they meant. He would pretend “I don’t know anything; I’m just trying to understand what it is you are saying”, or words to that effect. This is now called the Socratic method of teaching. Socrates is sometimes called the “father of Western philosophy“. This is because in the discussions he uncovered some of the most basic questions in philosophy, questions which are still discussed today.
The Time is Now
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Quality of Communication Channel: Operator’s Manuals
Quality of Communication Channel: Operator’s Manuals
In tonight’s post, our guest writer Ryszard Chciuk continues with his series on the quality of the communication channel with key information on Operator’s Manuals.
When writing about the quality of the communication channel, I meant the definition of service quality worked out by Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry in 1985:
To improve the quality, we have to close gaps causing the discrepancy between customer expectation and his perception of service. The main gap is:
The content of a dealership website shows if that gap is big or large. In other words, is the communication channel quality on a decent level or not? My previous post was about the availability of specification sheets for older machine models. Today I am presenting my point of view on the availability of Operators’ Manuals on a dealer website.
If you monitor discussions on construction equipment operators’ forums, you realize that an Operator’s Manual is rarely present in the operator cab. Your field technicians can confirm. A manual is lost somewhere or stacked in somebody’s drawer in the office.
Please imagine, I am one of many customers who bought, a few years ago, a machine made by a manufacturer you are representing here as a dealer. I have lost both a hard and a digital copy of an Operator’s Manual. Does your parts department keep these documents in stock for all models of machines you sold in the past? Can I buy an Operator’s Manual I need from your parts department as easy as filters? Is your price and delivery time on a decent level? Do you know why I buy that publication from very suspicious sources on the internet?
As your favorite customer, I would like to download an electronic copy of the manual from your website, free of charge. I am going to explain here my desire.
Why an Operator’s Manual is so important for a machine user?
Now you know how important is an Operator’s Manual for your dear customer, so you should understand my arguments for delivering digital copies of operator’s manuals free of charge:
As an experienced service provider, you know how much your current and potential customers are losing money because their operators have not learned to operate their machines according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Of course, it is their problem. But your reports for not-necessary parts sales show you the results of their lack of knowledge. And you do nothing to reduce that dispensable cost. Are you sure it builds partnership relations with customers?
It does not matter what kind of marketing you are subscribed to (billboard, engagement, or something else). Machine users expect and deserve a partnership attitude.
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Coaching Questions to Reach High Performance
Coaching Questions to Reach High Performance
Tonight’s blog post about coaching questions to reach high performance comes from our guest writer, Floyd Jerkins.
A coach can only be effective if someone wants to be coached. Frankly, that’s not entirely true. Some coaches live with the myth that someone always listens when they speak. Well, that’s also not quite true.
A coach constantly gauges how much input to give versus listening or asking questions to develop high performance. Professional sports players listen best when they are committed to producing an outcome beyond what they know how to do. It is the very same in the business world.
Can You Benefit by Using an Executive Coach?
When someone approaches me with interest in my coaching services, there are questions about what makes me a qualified coach. I’ve been doing this work for many years quite successfully, so it doesn’t take long to answer their questions.
After some casual exchange, my natural curiosity wants to know who you are, but more prescribed questioning is needed. I am not there to judge, analyze, or otherwise render an opinion. All this dialog focuses on designing a learning pathway.
Edward DeBono said it well in his book, Parallel Thinking, “Digging for gold is not the same as designing and building a house. Analysis and judgment are not enough when there is a need to design a way forward.”
Getting Started Is Easy
We establish a coaching contract because we must have this written to clearly describe the expected performance and the frequency and duration of the sessions. This is an important step to take because it spells out expectations and the timing milestones.
The first step is to figure out where you are and why. Then we look at where you want to be and what you want to accomplish. There is typically a “gap” between these two that allows insight into the behaviors that got you where you are.
To say that by looking into your past we can predict your future, is partially correct. If you don’t change how you make decisions, your future will be similar to your past. A good coach is a stimulus to make behavioral and attitude changes. My type of coaching approach alters your future.
Humans are a creature of habits that ultimately make up how we think, eat, talk, and above all, how we make conscious and unconscious decisions. Creating new habits isn’t always easy. I’ve seen people make functional changes almost instantly in their lives. Being told you have cancer can become life altering immediately. I’m more so talking about experiencing positive realizations that propel you forward in your life—essentially taking control of your life.
Pointed Questions to Discover Direction
What desired outcomes must be achieved between now and our next session to move you towards your objectives? This is an important question and one that can sometimes be tough to answer, especially if I keep asking it until the answers are specific. More often than not, just asking the question opens up ideas and possibilities.
What specific activities will you need to perform to accomplish your objectives? I’ve noticed that people often create a list of things to do. Too many times, these actions are tasks more than specific activities.
Why do you think these actions will achieve the outcome you’ve stated? How and when will it be accomplished, and who else must be included in this plan? These questions and, more importantly, the answers are super important in measuring success.
Wishful Thinking or True Change?
During the next call, we explore what happened between calls. At this stage, helping us both know the rationale behind the words becomes important to understand. I’ve often had clients say they do things or take actions but don’t know why; it’s just what I do they say. Other times their rationale doesn’t match up to the objectives. Getting behind the “why” you do what you do helps to make better decisions in the future. I firmly believe you can design your future.
Tom Landry, coach of the Dallas Cowboys, said, “A coach is someone who tells you what you don’t want to hear and has you see what you don’t want to see, so you can be who you have always known you could be.”
During these calls, the realities start to reveal themselves. The time milestones between the coaching contacts allow the individual to perform based on what they say they will do. We are beginning to uncover fact or fiction at this point. I like to say that the entire situation is now “unfolding,” and together, we design the next steps in your pathway.
Internally I am asking myself, what other resources do they need? Is my coaching what they really need? Is the original plan designed to move forward on track, or does it need adjusting? Can they take hearing the truth, or do they just want to hear false kindness?
I think Coach Landry said it really well. Sometimes, a coach’s role isn’t to be the friend who only tells you how great you are. Holding up the mirror of truth and then listening closely normally reveals if the coach needs to ask more questions or is it time to give input. Once the light goes on, and the ears are open, that’s when sweeping changes occur. I love the journey and exploration.
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