Ignite Employee and Customer Engagement with Positive Energy

“We are 100% energy. 
Make sure your energy is 100% golden!”

High school students learn in physics class or on the ball field that we are 100% energy and when we interact with one another we transfer that energy. The question every leader and employee needs to ask is, “What kind of energy am I transferring to others?” 

Leaders and employees will be transferring positive energy, but of course positive energy isn’t the only kind of energy one can transfer.                                      

Transfer the Right Energy 

Do you know supervisors or coworkers who display and spread negative energy? Such people say things like, “you can’t find good help these days.” They moan, my boss passed me over for a promotion. Our customers are so demanding.”

 

Draining, isn’t it? You want them to hand them your cell phone so you they can call a waaambulance. Do you hear a lot of energy-sucking statements? Are you the one transferring negative energy with put-downs, sarcastic remarks, half-hearted responses or complaints about how life and work sucks?

Control Your Energy    

When we are interacting with our staff or coworkers, we must give them the best energy we have. I don’t mean an over-the-top fake and manufactured energy. I mean the positive energy you feel and express when you see a friend, or joyfully hanging out with friends and family (The ones your actually like).

You cannot let a bad day or personal problems control your energy when interacting with employees and/or customers. What happens to professional athletes who allow a bad mood to fester during game time, who keep their scowl when they should have on their game face? They lose!

Moody leaders and employees don’t just fail to transfer positive energy to their employees and customers; they succeed in transferring negative energy that kills engagement.

If you want to get over bad feelings or get rid of bad energy, start by giving some good energy. You will get that good energy back, and that returned energy will fire up your own.

Have you ever had a bad morning: you cut yourself shaving (the day of a major presentation), the computer freezes up, and spill coffee on your favorite shirt all within an hour of waking up? Then when you finally get in the car and head to the presentation, you see that you have a flat tire. You’re ready to give up on the day as surely as fickle Los Angeles Lakers fans.

But then you see or talk to someone with amazing energy, and your bad morning takes a turn for the better. Your day brightens all because of some positive energy you received from a positive person.

Here’s a news flash for you: energy is controllable – it is all about your position and attitude toward circumstances and events. 

Set the Thermostat

 

If you want your employees and customers to be engaged, YOU set the energy thermostat. Before walking into your place of work and conversing with employees and/or customers, set your positive energy thermostat to max!

In our homes, the thermostat determines the temperature in the room, and the thermostat has to balance between the variables of temperature outside and the desired temperature in room.
                                             

Be Passionate 

 

If we interact with someone whose mood is poor, whose energy is low, then we may begin to feel the same way. The reverse is true as well. Show passion for what you do and who you serve and you transfer that energy and mood. 

People cheer for passionate athletes. They take to heart the words of passionate teachers. And they follow passionate leaders.

“Passion makes all things alive and significant.” --Ralph Waldo Emerson

Lead and work with passion!

Click here to feel happy energy in 60 seconds or less!

Peter Mclees, Peter Mclees, Leadership Trainer, Coach and Facilitator

petercmclees@gmail.com

Mobile: 323-854-1713

P. S. Smart Development  has an exceptional track record helping ports, restaurants, stores, branches, distribution centers,  sales teams, food production facilities, nonprofits, government agencies, and other businesses create a strong culture, leadership bench strength and the teamwork necessary for growth. Having worked with several companies throughout their growth cycle, we have valuable insights and strategies that would help any late stage startup, small or medium sized company achieve sustained growth and prosperity.

http://smartdevelopmentinc.com/

3 Things Great Sales Managers STOP Doing

When I ask sales managers to describe a typical day, they often say that they come into the office at 7:00am with a good plan for the day, then at 8:05am a rep calls up or walks into their office and says “We’ve got a problem.” The next thing the manager knows, it’s 6:00pm and they haven’t done a single thing on their own To Do list.

Sales managers’ time is a precious commodity. Solving other people’s problems is not the best use of your time. If you want to see better sales results, you’ve got to do more developmental coaching where you teach and help your reps improve their skills. One of the best ways to avoid becoming your team’s “problem-solver-in-chief” AND to help develop their skills is to get savvier about how you handle the problems that walk into your office daily (Or call/email you). Here are three tips to get you started:

STOP responding so quickly to the “urgent” requests made by others in your company.

A former colleague of mine was once the director of sales training for a successful company. Before leaving for an exotic vacation, she left a voicemail greeting that said, “I’ll be overseas for two weeks and unable to respond to either voice mail or email. If this is important, please speak to my assistant.” 

When she returned from vacation she discovered 93 voice mails! One series of messages was from Joe, one of her regional sales directors. It began two days after Penny left on vacation:

Day 1: “Penny, this is Joe. We’ve got an URGENT crisis here. I need to speak to you right NOW! Here’s my phone number, cell number, home phone number, wife’s cell number. Call me right NOW!”

Day 1 (later): Joe leaves Penny another “urgent” message.

Day 2: Joe calls a third time. “Penny, we’re making some progress here, but I’d still like to talk to you.”

Day 3: The fourth message from Joe: “Ahhh, Penny, I think we’ve got it under control. Call me when you get back. Have a nice vacation!”

So yes, as odd as it may sound, my advice is to not always be at the beck-and-call of co-workers.

STOP adopting the day-to-day problems encountered by your salespeople as your own problems.

What I find most interesting about the statement “We’ve got a problem” is the pronoun use — “we’ve” got, not “I’ve” got. The rep is hoping you’ll take on the burden of solving a problem for them. 

Do NOT allow yourself to become their clerical assistant! Continually ask yourself throughout the day, “What is the impact on revenue growth of doing what I’m doing (or about to do) now?”

Both you and I know that you will do great at whatever you do, so it’s critical that you choose to do important stuff!

The next time a sales rep approaches you with a problem, listen but don’t offer your own ideas or allow yourself to be dragged into the drama. The goal should be to help that person figure out a way to deal with the problem on their own. I do this by engaging the rep in a conversation based on what I call the two magic questions:

• What have you done about it so far?
• What do you think ought to be done next?

By discussing these questions, you can (a) gauge how effective the rep is already in dealing with problems, and (b) guide them towards steps you want them to learn to take on their own in the future.

STOP being overly task-oriented.

A sales manager who is overly task-oriented can spend too much time making sure mundane to-dos get done while ignoring the development of the team. Sales management is about people development. The key question you need to ask yourself is: “Is my sales team more skilled today than they were one month ago?” Simply put, if your team is not getting better, it is getting worse.

We often get so focused on what we need to do that we forget that leadership is also about what we choose to stop doing. Everybody has the same amount of time – great sales managers are great because they put more time into more important tasks and priorities.

To your greater success!

Peter Mclees, Peter Mclees, Sales Trainer and Coach

petercmclees@gmail.com

Mobile: 323-854-1713

P. S. Smart Development  has an exceptional track record helping sales teams, ports, restaurants, stores, branches, distribution centers, food production facilities, nonprofits, government agencies, and other businesses create a strong culture, leadership bench strength and the teamwork necessary for growth. Having worked with several companies throughout their growth cycle, we have valuable insights and strategies that would help any late stage startup, small or medium sized company achieve sustained growth and prosperity.

http://smartdevelopmentinc.com/

10 Ways to Make a Bad Day Better

We all have bad days. Perhaps we get stuck in a traffic jam on our way to work, argue "energetically" with a grumpy colleague, or have a serious problem with a client delivery.

Whatever the reason, bad days are part of life. However, we can choose how we react to them.

One option is to dwell on the situation, and let our negative emotions persist throughout the day. But this is unpleasant, and there's a good chance that our mood will spread to others. Instead, we can take the initiative and find ways to make a bad day better. This choice is empowering and positive, and it puts us in control of our actions and emotions.

1. Give The Matter The Attention It Deserves. Whenever nonsense shows its face in my life I won’t spend time thinking about it or dwelling on it . . . when I'm able, I simply move on. Granted there are some things that you can’t dismiss and that’s where items 2-10 will come in handy!

2. Try To Find Humor . . . in either the event or just think about something funny to get you laughing. Can’t think of something? Why not listen to some comedy and while you’re at it, have a comedy playlist on your phone for those “Momma said there would be days like this” moments!

3. Try Doing an Activity That Requires A High Level Of Focus: My Grandfather did silver engraving. The focus took the focus off the bad day.

4. Move! Motion creates emotion because certain types of movement release endorphins which create that “runners high”. You can walk, exercise, pace or do the Hokey Pokey as I often do in the offices of Smart Development. (What if the Hokey Pokey is really what it's all about?)

5. Engage Your Spiritual GPS! Certain things are simply beyond us and we need all the help we can get.

6. Say “Thank You.” I’ll preface this one with a firm “I know how difficult it can be to do this” We’re saying thank you because we are about to receive a lesson in something. Whether it be in dealing with a Grade A Jerk or a lesson in keeping ourselves calm, cool and collated as our printers at Office Max like to say!

7. Go through a “Gratitude Inventory.” Many of us have the bad habit of taking a “Screw You” inventory of everything that stinks in our life. A gratitude inventory gets you in into a frenzy of positivity!

8. Talk With Someone! Vent and then shift the conversation to solutions!

9. Ask Yourself Problem Solving Questions Such As. “In what ways can I _______________?” “How can I turn this around?” “Who do I know that could help or offer advice?”

10. Think And Use The Old “Start, Stop Continue” Framework! Ask yourself “What do I need to start doing to fix this?” “What do I need to stop doing to fix this?” “What should I continue doing to fix this?”

To your greater happiness!

Peter Mclees, Peter Mclees, Leadership Trainer, Coach and Facilitator

petercmclees@gmail.com

Mobile: 323-854-1713

P. S. Smart Development  has an exceptional track record helping ports, restaurants, stores, branches, distribution centers,  sales teams, food production facilities, nonprofits, government agencies, and other businesses create a strong culture, leadership bench strength and the teamwork necessary for growth. Having worked with several companies throughout their growth cycle, we have valuable insights and strategies that would help any late stage startup, small or medium sized company achieve sustained growth and prosperity.

"Pay Me Now, or Pay Me Later"

All the money in the world won’t buy you a single extra second of time; but, without time, you couldn’t enjoy the benefits of having all the money in the world.

In the workplace, it’s the one thing that managers never have enough. “I don’t have time” is the most common reason managers have for failing to do the critical leadership activities - communication, coaching, development, planning, and so on.

It’s not that managers don’t understand that they need more time to do those things, they just never seem to have any extra time laying around. However, although managers constantly complain they never have enough of time, it’s revealing to see how they invest what they do have.

There is an old brain teaser that goes like this: “I will offer you two things today and today only. You must choose one, and the offer expires in one minute.

First, I will offer you $1 million dollars in cash, in your hands today. Or, as an alternative, I will offer you a single penny today. Then, tomorrow I will pay you double that amount, and I will continue to double the amount each day for a grand total of 30 days. You would receive one cent today, two cents tomorrow, then four cents, then eight cents, and so on until you reach thirty days. Which one would you choose?”

You get $1 million, in cash. Right this minute.

Or, in 7 days you could accumulate...let’s see...1+2+4+8+16+32+64... a show-stopping $1.27 for ALL 7 days combined.

Let’s face it, there are a lot of things you can do with a million dollars in cash in hand. And $1.27 is downright meaningless. But, you’re thinking, maybe you just need to be patient. Maybe this can go somewhere.

Well, at the end of two weeks, on Day 14, your payday will be a whopping $81.92. Fourteen days of pay and you have accumulated $163.83. Not exactly a million bucks. For two weeks of waiting, you have less than two hundred bucks, which is not even enough to make a decent car payment. Meanwhile, the dude with the million dollars is tooling around in a Ferrari - with a free and clear title.

However, to be fair, maybe you just need to give it a little more time. There’s got a be something to this, right? Or why would I make you the offer?

So, things start to look a little better at the end of the third week. On Day 21, you get a nice stack of cash, exactly $10,485.76. However, your total income for 21 days – Three weeks – is only about $21,000.00. Not terrible, but it is still a long, long, LONG way from a million dollars.

Like $979,000 away.

Looks like you should’ve gone with the million bucks in cash. Maybe you thought there had to be something tricky about that penny offer, and you decided to take a chance. But, if you’re like most people, you looked at all those stacks of Benjamins and jumped on that million bucks.

Good call!

Well, no, it wasn’t. Sorry, I was just trying to make you feel better. Actually, you were unwise to take the $1 million.

In Week 4, that would’ve become crystal clear. On Day 25, your payday is over $165K. On Day 28, your haul is seven-figures – more than $1.3 million. Your final cash payout on Day 30 is over $5.3 million.

All in, for the 30 days, starting at one penny, you would have accumulated over $10.7 million.

This illustration has been around a long time, and it is typically used to illustrate the power of compounding – doubling an amount every day for 30 days provides a crushing return on your investment.

The problem is that the allure of immediate gain can be really, REALLY difficult to ignore, especially when the long-term return is not clearly fixed in your mind. However, one thing is certain, if the pain is bad enough, some people will opt for the $1 million today even if they know they are only 30 days away from $10 million.

Leaders make this mistake a lot.

There are a variety of things that leaders fail to do that can have that compounding effect on performance, but they never seem to get around to doing them. Leaders will even freely admit they need to do those things – they WANT to do those things – but they just don’t have time.

So, they continue to invest in short-term relief.

• They continue to step in front of employees and do their work for them – because they don’t have time to teach and coach.

• They continue to make every decision – because they don’t have time to coach employees how to make think.

• They continue to solve every problem – because they just don’t have time to explain all the details to the employee.

But each these decisions – making decisions, solving problems, and so forth – represent small investments in time to the leader, something that is always in short supply.

Unfortunately, each of these short-term fixes have longer-term implications. Employees don’t learn, they don’t engage, and they don’t contribute their own creativity and thinking. They work without purpose and direction, and wonder why no one ever tells them anything.

Which means, very clearly, that those time savings provide absolutely NO RETURN other than to briefly relieve the pain. And it never gets better. Ever. You wind up paying far more in terms of time than you ever save in the short-term. The short-term time-saver turns into the black hole for leaders.

There is never enough time because...THERE IS NEVER ENOUGH TIME.

To your greater success!

Peter Mclees, Leadership Trainer and Coach

petercmclees@gmail.com

Mobile: 323-854-1713

P. S. Smart Development  has an exceptional track record helping ports, restaurants, stores, branches, distribution centers,  sales teams, food production facilities, nonprofits, government agencies, and other businesses create a strong culture, leadership bench strength and the teamwork necessary for growth. Having worked with several companies throughout their growth cycle, we have valuable insights and strategies that would help any late stage startup, small or medium sized company achieve sustained growth and prosperity.

http://smartdevelopmentinc.com/

What Geese Can Teach Us About Teamwork

It's Fall in the Pacific Northwest. One of the many delights of the season is hearing the beautiful call of the Canadian geese which alerts you to look up in the sky. The first image of the skein (or flock) of geese reminds me of a floating black ribbon or the tail of a kite. 

In October and November the sky is alive with ribbons of geese gracefully swooping and looping sometimes bearing left and sometimes right. These maneuvers seem to give the stray birds time to catch up to the throng. 

When you watch the flock closely you realize that the geese are all leaders and followers each taking a turn. Alternately leading and following creates a perfect rhythm which enables them to get to their faraway winter destination. 

I believe there are several lessons in teamwork that we can learn from the goose. Geese are intriguing creatures and while considered pests in certain situations, they also have an incredibly strong sense of family and group loyalty. Probably one of the most phenomenal geese facts is that their desire to return to their birth place every year is so strong that they will often fly up to 3,000 miles to get there. 

Lesson #1: Empowering Others to Lead

When the lead goose in the front gets tired, it rotates back into the formation and allows another goose to take the leadership position. 
  
The lesson here is to empower others to also lead. It pays to take turns doing the hard tasks and sharing leadership. 
As with geese, people are interdependent on each other’s skills, capabilities, and unique arrangement of gifts, talents, or resources.

Lesson #2: Staying Committed to Core Values and Purpose

The geese migration routes never vary. They use the same route year after year. Even when the flock members change, the young learn the route from their parents. In the spring they will go back to the spot where they were born. 
  
The lesson to learn here is to stay true to our core values and purpose. 
  
Strategies, tactics may change in order remain agile, but great struggles always stick to their core purpose and values, and preserve them with vigor

Lesson #3: Offering Support in Challenging Times

When a goose gets sick or wounded, two geese drop out of formation and follow it down to help and protect it. 

They stay with it until it dies or is able to fly again. Then, they launch out with another formation or catch up with the flock. 


The lesson here is to stand by each other in difficult times. It’s easy to always be part of winning teams, but when things get difficult and people are facing challenges, that’s when your teammates need you the most. 

Lesson #4 Encouraging and Recognizing Other’s Contribution

The geese honk to recognize each other and encourage those up front to keep up their speed. The lesson here is to make sure we praise people and give them the recognition they deserve. 
  
Lack of recognition is one of the main reasons employees are unsatisfied at work and quit. 
  
We need to make sure our honking is encouraging. 

In groups where there is encouragement, the production is greater. The power of encouragement (to stand by one's heart or core values and encourage the heart and core of others) is the quality of honking we seek. 

Lesson #5 Sharing a Common Goal

As each goose flaps its wings it creates “uplift”, an aerodynamics orientation that reduces air friction, for the birds that follow. By flying in a V-formation, the whole flock achieves a 70% greater flying range than if each bird flew alone. 

The lesson we can learn here is that people who share a common direction and goal can get where they are going quicker and with less effort because they benefit from the momentum of the group moving around them. 
  
Make sure your team is aligned towards a common goal. 

Lesson #6 Having Humility to Seek Help

When a goose falls out of formation, it suddenly feels the friction of flying alone. 
  
It then quickly adjusts its mistake and moves back into formation to take advantage of the lifting power of the bird immediately in front of it. 

The lesson we can learn here is to be humble to admit the challenges we face and to seek help as soon as we get stuck. 
  
This humility will enable you, your team, to move faster and achieve more. 

A Story About Geese 

A flock of wild geese had settled to rest on a pond. 
  
One of the flock had been captured by a gardener, who had clipped its wings before releasing it. 

When the geese started to resume their flight, this one tried frantically, but vainly, to lift itself into the air. The others, observing his struggles, flew about in obvious efforts to encourage him; but it was no use. 

Thereupon, the entire flock settled back on the pond and waited, even though the urge to go on was strong within them. For several days they waited until the damaged feathers had grown sufficiently to permit the goose to fly. 

Meanwhile, the unethical gardener, having been converted by the ethical geese, gladly watched them as they finally rose together and all resumed their long flight. 

--Albert Schweitzer 

To your greater success!

Peter Mclees, Leadership Trainer and Coach

petercmclees@gmail.com

Mobile: 323-854-1713

P. S. Smart Development  has an exceptional track record helping ports, restaurants, stores, branches, distribution centers,  sales teams, food production facilities, nonprofits, government agencies, and other businesses create a strong culture, leadership bench strength and the teamwork necessary for growth. Having worked with several companies throughout their growth cycle, we have valuable insights and strategies that would help any late stage startup, small or medium sized company achieve sustained growth and prosperity.

http://smartdevelopmentinc.com/

Why Money Won't Get You to Level Three Happiness

In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson argued that life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are our inalienable rights.

We have life and more liberty than our ancestors could possibly have imagined. Not just freedom from tyrants and feudal lords, but freedom from backbreaking labor without worker protections, forced conscription, arranged marriages, widespread banditry and injustice, religious persecution, and the threat of dozens of now-curable diseases.

Happiness on the other hand, is a little trickier.

Notice that Jefferson was wise enough to say that we don't have a right to happiness itself, just the pursuit of it. After all it can be elusive...especially Level Three.

According to Daniel Nettle, a lecturer in Psychology at the University of Newcastle in Britain and the author of Happiness: The Science Behind Your Smile, there are three levels of happiness.

Level One is the happiness of momentary feelings. This is the enjoyment we take in a good movie, a game of golf, a travel vacation to a favorite destination or a meal spent in the company of friends and family. This type of happiness is immediate but transient. Whenever you have experience fun or pleasure, you have reached Level One.

Level Two is more cognitive. It involves judgments about feelings. If you are satisfied with your life, if you reflect on your pleasure and pains, your assets and liabilities and feel that, overall, the balance is positive, you've reached Level Two. You are likely to report a general sense of satisfaction or well being.

And Level Three? According to Nettle, you reach Level Three only when you feel your are flourishing, fulfilling your life's potential. Level Three is about living the highest quality life.

What is that exactly?

I'm tempted to paraphrase Louis Armstrong. Asked by an interviewer to define Jazz, he replied "Man, if you gotta ask, you'll never know."

Clearly, however, a high-quality life is not synonymous with simply make a lot of money.

I'm not an idealist arguing that money doesn't matter given the economic structure. It does.

Money determines your neighborhood and the house your kids grow up in. It determines whether they go to college and where. It can decide whether you get a decent doctor or an incredible doctor. If you need a lawyer, it determines whether you get an ambulance chaser or the best defense attorney money can buy. It provides freedom, security and peace of mind.

In short, money matters. BUT it doesn't buy genuine love or friendship. It won't solve all your problems, end your worries, fix your marriage, make you "a success," or even make your more charitable. People without money often imagine it will will do all these things. It won't.

That's because money doesn't change you. It magnifies you, making it clear to everyone who you really are. In the end, you are who you are because of the choices you make, not the amount of money you have.

As author Larry Winget said, "If Paris Hilton, Britney Spears and Justin Beiber weren't rich, that would still be crashing cars and acting stupid at Wal-Mart instead of on Rodeo Drive. You just wouldn't know about it...Money doesn't make you stupid. It just gets your picture taken more often."

Some folks might wonder what creates high-level satisfaction, if not the blessings that money can buy.

In his book EconoPower: How a New Generation of Scientists is Transforming the world, Mark Skousen provides a pretty good answer. The four elements of happiness, he says are:

1. Rewarding and honest employment
2. Recreation
3. Love and friendship
4. Spiritual development

Notice that number 1 is a pretty tough hurdle for retirees, and helps explain why so many slip into depression after leaving the workforce.

Notice that none of the four elements requires money. (Though I'll concede that if you're broke, your recreation is more likely to be hiking, swimming, or reading than yachting or racing thoroughbreds.)

Perhaps the best description of Level Three happiness was put forward by Aristotle a few thousand year ago in the Nicomachean Ethics.

The Greek philosopher argued that we seek happiness in all the wrong places (Like Love). We chase pleasure, excitement, and profit. Not that these things aren't enjoyable. But they don't create lasting contentment, because they are not what matters most.

What matters most, says Aristotle, is realizing your potential, living up to your values, and following your conscience. It's these things that create "the good life." It's these virtues that lead to a deep and abiding sense of happiness (what Nettle calls Level Three)

Following the dictates of conscience is never easy, of course. In many ways we will fall short. Still, it's better to fail at what is worth pursuing than to succeed at what is not.

As a wise man famously said, "The truth of the matter is you always know the right thing to do (Unless you're a sociopath!). The hard part is doing it."

To your greater happiness!

Peter Mclees, Leadership Trainer and Coach

petercmclees@gmail.com

Mobile: 323-854-1713

P. S. Smart Development  has an exceptional track record helping ports, restaurants, stores, branches, distribution centers,  sales teams, food production facilities, nonprofits, government agencies, and other businesses create a strong culture, leadership bench strength and the teamwork necessary for growth. Having worked with several companies throughout their growth cycle, we have valuable insights and strategies that would help any late stage startup, small or medium sized company achieve sustained growth and prosperity.

http://smartdevelopmentinc.com/