How Strategic Conversation Creates Culture and Drives Results

 

Strategic conversation is to communication what oxygen is to air. But as important as communication is to the success of the organization, there’s a common mindset that communication is a nice-to-have skill but not as necessary as the hard skills.

This mindset leads to loss of talent, lowered productivity, unhealthy cultures while pointing blame at the economy, millennials, or the bad attitudes of the employees.

Today’s leader must live in a both-and mindset. Hard skills, check. Critical communication skills, check.

In our latest e-book, we make the case that today’s leaders cannot survive on hard skills alone. Instead, it’s the mandatory hard skill knowledge in concert with improving strategic communication skills that provide the necessary formula for leaders to shift culture and drive results.

In the e-book, we discuss:

• The mindset that stunts leadership growth.
• How unconscious conclusions drives decision-making.
• Why conversations with customers may be slowing your business.
• How language mirrors culture.
• Why mission and values are not enough to change culture.
• Why keeping the peace often comes with an even bigger price tag.
  
• The most important skill to controlling the conversations' direction.
• Why radical listening improves leadership performance.
  

In short: conversation creates culture and drives results. The leader who is strong in hard skills but not improving in communication and conversation struggle the same way human beings struggle to breathe air with low levels of oxygen.

Top leaders must constantly work with people who communicate  poorly;  are emotionally immature, and  who are very short sighted, impatient,  angry, self-serving and less than articulate. It makes sense for top leaders to develop both the hard skills and critical skills to achieve results. Hard skills without the strategic communication skill is like air without oxygen.

Click here to download the e-book.

To your greater success and fulfillment,

 

Peter Mclees, Leadership Coach, Trainer and Performance Consultant

SMART DEVELOPMENT

Take the Next Step... 

Interested in learning how leadership coaching and training can help you create a high performance culture and drive results? We begin with a collaborative discovery process identifying your unique needs and business issues. To request an interview with Peter Mclees please contact: 

Email: petercmclees@gmail.com  or  Mobile:323-854-1713

Smart Development has an exceptional track record helping service providers, ports, sales teams, restaurants, stores, distribution centers, food production facilities, title companies, wealth management firms, third-party maintenance companies, nonprofits, government agencies and other businesses create a strong culture, leadership bench strength, coaching skills 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.

Discovering Your Blind Spots Will Elevate Your Leadership Impact: Here's How

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Discover the elephant in your life.

Our blind spots create lots of problems. What we see clouds our judgment; what we don’t see bias our behaviors.

Leonardo da Vinci said, “The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions.”

Six men in a village went to observe an elephant. It was their first time — all of them were blind.

“It’s a pillar.” said the man who touched the elephant’s leg.

“No, it’s like a rope.” — said other after touching the tail.

The blind men began to argue; everyone believed he was right. After observing the elephant, the rest thought that it was either a snake, spear, hand fan, or branch.

A wise man who was passing by calmly explained: “You are all right. Everyone noticed something different because each of you touched a different part; the elephant has all the features you all said.”

Our reality is like the elephant in this Indian parable: everyone observes parts of it. That’s why others can see aspects of yourself that you are missing.

The problem with blind spots is that you don’t know what you don’t know.

To get the whole picture of who you are, you need to consider other people’s perspectives, not just yours.

What Are Blind Spots? The Elephant in Your Life

“What the human being is best at doing is interpreting all new information so that their prior conclusions remain intact.” — Warren Buffet

Your blind spots might not be noticeable, but they are anything but small.

Carl Sagan said: “The absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.”

Wrong perceptions can lead to misinterpretations. Your assessment of your behaviors is limited by what you don’t know. However, your blind spots are always visible to others.

What you don’t know you don’t know gets you into trouble.

 Donald Rumsfeld famously said in classic doublespeak, "there are 'known knowns,' 'known unknowns,' and 'unknown unknowns.' The first two are easy: you have clarity on both what you know and on what you need to find out.

The “unknown unknowns” are your blind spots. It’s hard to acknowledge that, regardless of how well you believe you know yourself, you are clueless about some of your traits. Increasing self-awareness is critical to see your whole picture. Not realizing what you don’t know drives confusion.

Delusion creates delusion: that’s why we keep lying to ourselves.

Your blind spots are the inner-space from where you operate. Some call it the “inner bias;” deep inside, you might refuse to acknowledge what you don’t like (but know) about yourself.

For example, people often think they’re talking to each other when they’re talking past each other. The more we talk, the better we feel. This blind spot is created by reward hormones that are released when our bodies feel great. That’s why we keep talking without noticing that others get frustrated when we interrupt them.

Address the elephant in your life. Challenge the notion that you know yourself well. There’s always room for surprises.

Not All Blind Spots Are The Same

    “Getting rid of a delusion makes us wiser than getting hold of a truth.” — Ludwig Borne

Most blind spots are based on assumptions.

We believe that we know ourselves better than we actually do. We overrate or underestimate others. We miss understanding the impact we have on other people, or the one others have on us.

Understanding the four main types of blind spots will accelerate your discovery journey.

1. Knowledge blindness

This cognitive bias occurs when people of low ability suffer from ‘illusory superiority.’ The Dunning-Kruger effect is the inability to evaluate our own competence objectively— think of a test, sports match, or interview. We mistakenly assess our cognitive ability as more fabulous than it actually is.

Knowledge blindness makes you feel overconfident until others prove you wrong.

2. Beliefs blindness

Of the many types of faulty thinking, confirmation bias is the most deceiving. Your brain mostly registers the information and evidence that supports your core beliefs. If you think that climate change is for real, you will either discard or ignore any information that doesn’t match what you think. Beliefs encourage you to take sides, rather than to ‘see’ what you are missing, as I wrote here.

Your beliefs are a tainted lens: they cloud everything you see.

3. Emotional Blindness

Emotions can cloud your perception — both what you feel about what you are afraid of feeling. If you hate your boss, you will never learn anything from her/him. What you feel expresses a part of yourself, but they don’t have to define who you are or your behaviors. You are not your emotions.

Your emotions make you focus on one aspect of reality.

4. Thoughts blindness

There’s nothing wrong with thinking. The issue emerges when you look ‘from’ your thoughts — they cloud your judgment. Believing that you are always right is living in denial. Being judgmental about yourself plays the same deceiving effect.

Your thoughts can eat you alive if you don’t stop them from taking over.

When you overestimate your abilities or only pay attention to the information that matches your beliefs, you become a victim of your blind spots. If your emotions or thoughts take over, you can’t address the elephant in your life — you don’t know what you don’t know.

Open The Window, Set Your Blind Spots Free

“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.” — Marcel Proust

Realizing what you don’t know requires both self-discovery and external feedback.

Your blind spots lie at the intersection of how you perceive yourself and how others perceive you. That’s precisely what ‘The Johari Window’ helps uncover. This tool was developed by Psychologists Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham to help you understand what you are unaware of.

Don’t let the simplicity of this model deceive you. I’ve applied it various times when coaching teams to increase both self and team awareness. The Johari Window exercise is potent — it uncovers the gap between the team’s realities and everyone’s assumptions.

 

ARENA: Traits and behaviors that both yourself and others are aware of. It includes anything about yourself that you are willing to share. This area drives clarity and builds trust.

MASK: Aspects about yourself that you are aware of but might not want others to know. It can also include traits that you are not sharing with others without you being aware of. What you show to others is a mask that hides your authentic being.

BLIND SPOTS: What others perceive, but you don’t. Important to note: not valuing your strengths can also be a blind spot. Feedback from others can make you more aware of your negative traits but also of the positive ones you are missing.

UNCONSCIOUS: What’s unknown to both you and anyone else.

Though this matrix has four quadrants, the size of each is not necessarily equal. The openness of each window pane will vary depending on:

    How much you share with other people
    How well others (try to) know you
    How well you know yourself

You can expand your “Arena” area by:

    Disclosing more about yourself, thus reducing the “Mask” area
    Uncovering more about your “Unconscious” area
    Becoming aware of your “Blind” area

Others’ feedback is the most powerful way to discover your blind spots.

Do you get defensive when someone asks you something personal? Do you tend to interrupt people before they have finished making their point? Are emotions clouding your ability to make decisions? Do you regularly get caught by self-criticism?

Sometimes you don’t realize your behaviors unless someone tells you.

You can also uncover your blind spots through a shared discovery — question your assumptions and invite others to do the same. Challenge how well you know yourself.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Simple Exercise to Uncover Your Blind Spots

    “Appearance blinds, whereas words reveal.” — Oscar Wilde

1. Write five words that describe you. 
2. Ask nine people to do the same (3 family members, 3 co-workers, and 3 friends). 
3. Compare the answers with your own assessment:
   

• What are the similarities? What are the differences?

• What are the things that you like about yourself, but others don’t notice?

• Is there something that you like about yourself that others hate?

• How do opinions from family and co-workers differ from each other? What does that tell you about how you behave in different environments?

• What surprised you about everyone’s feedback? Why?
  

Your blind spots are the elephant in your life. You know it is in the room, but you prefer not to confront or talk about it.

Self-awareness is a never-ending journey. When you believe you truly know yourself, you become blind — as it happened to the villagers. Observing one part doesn’t mean that you understand the whole ‘animal.’

Your emotions, thoughts, beliefs, and what you know can get you into trouble. Use feedback — both solicited and unexpected — to challenge your assumptions.

Address the elephant in your life; discover your blind spots.

Check out a related post: The Leadership "Super Skill" of the 21st Century

To your greater success and fulfillment,

Peter Mclees, Leadership Coach, Trainer and Performance Consultant
SMART DEVELOPMENT

Take the Next Step... 

Interested in learning how to develop your organization's leadership capability, culture, and employee engagement ? We begin with a collaborative discovery process identifying your unique needs and business issues. To request an interview with Peter Mclees please contact: 

Email: petercmclees@gmail.com  or  Mobile:323-854-1713

Smart Development has an exceptional track record helping service providers, ports, sales teams, restaurants, stores, distribution centers, food production facilities, wealth management services, real estate services, nonprofits, government agencies and other businesses create a strong culture, leadership bench strength, coaching skills 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.

How you can perform like an Olympic-level sales pro

 

Are you watching the Olympics?
I am always amazed at the level of mastery these athletes have attained. In all of their sports (even ones I've never heard of.)

They make things look easy.

But getting to that point was anything but.
There are lots of similarities between them and the highest performing sales pros.

It's putting in the work, for sure.

And the top, highest level sales pros prepare in an area that most do not.
It's not only preparing and practicing to achieve the response we want, but being totally prepared for what we'd rather not hear.

The word "no" can be a tough pill to swallow.

In selling, when you're trying to meet a quota, squeeze in an extra deal before the end of the month, or get your bonus, the word "no" is too often interpreted as a sign to run for the hills when, in fact, it should be the exact opposite.

A sales objection is an explicit expression by a buyer that a barrier exists between the current situation and what needs to be satisfied before buying from you. Beyond that, it's an indication that the buyer is engaged, which sure beats apathy.

However, you still have work to do.

When a buyer indicates that he is not ready to buy, don't get discouraged. Use the following 4 steps to overcome sales objections and move closer to the sale.

1.Listen Fully to the Objection 
Your first reaction when you hear an objection may be to jump right in and respond immediately. Resist this temptation. When you react too quickly, you risk making assumptions about the objection. Take the time to listen to the objection fully.

Do not react defensively. Train yourself to ignore any negative emotions you may be feeling, and stay focused on what the buyer is saying and the business problem you are helping to solve. Listen with the intent of fully understanding the buyer's concerns without bias or anticipation, and allow your body language and verbal confirmations to communicate to the buyer that you are listening intently.

2.Understand the Objection Completely 
Many objections hide underlying issues that the buyer can't or isn't ready to articulate. Often the true issue isn't what the buyer first tells you. It's your job to get to the heart of the objection, and then fully understand it and its true source.

To do this, you must ask permission from the buyer to understand and explore the issue. Once explored, restate the concern as you understand it. Sometimes when you restate the objection, the buyer sees the issue more fully, and you get closer to the true source of the objection as a result. Even after the buyer confirms you understand perfectly, ask "What else?" and "Why" questions for clarification. Often it is the answer to that last "What else?" that contains the biggest barrier to moving the sale forward.

3.Respond Properly 
After you're confident you've uncovered all objections, address the most important objection first. Once you work through the greatest barrier to moving forward, other concerns may no longer matter or feel as important to the buyer.

You should do your best to resolve their issue right away. The more you can resolve issues in real time, the greater chance you have of moving the sale forward. If you need more information to resolve a specific concern, you may have to look something up. Don't wing it—buyers can sense that and it creates distrust. Long-winded responses can seem insincere, so keep your responses clear and to the point.

4.Confirm You've Satisfied the Objection 
Once you've responded to the buyer's objections, check if you've satisfied all of their concerns. Just because they nodded during your response doesn't mean they agreed with everything you said. Ask if the buyer is happy with your solution and explain your solution further if necessary. Some objections require a process to overcome, not just a quick answer.

If the customer isn't ready, don't try to force a commitment. Be sure not to accept a lukewarm "yes" for an answer though, either. Many buyers will accept a solution in the moment, but once you're out of sight or off the phone, the objection still remains.

When faced with sales objections, don't lose sight of your goal. Use the steps above to Listen, Understand, Respond and Confirm, and you will strengthen your relationships with buyers, overcome obstacles in the buying process, and move closer to the sale.

To your greater success,

Peter C. Mclees, Sales Coach and Trainer
Smart Development
petercmclees@gmail.com
Mobile: 323-854-1713

We help sales reps and sales organizations accelerate their sales. 

Why Leaders Need to Become Fluent in 'Digital Body Language'

 

 

 

 

 

 

"What is implicit in body language needs to become explicit in digital body language."

                                                                                              --Erica Dhawan

As humans, we begin learning about the role physical body language plays in communication almost immediately. We learn the subtleties and nuances behind posture, facial expression, and vocal inflection – the things that enhance (or sometimes say more than) the words themselves. 

But as digital communications increased, more and more of these interpretation tools were lost, often resulting in troubling miscommunication. The pandemic and the shift to many people working from home didn’t create this problem – it only highlighted and exacerbated it. Now more than ever, we need to become conversant and proficient at digital body language.

That is my introduction to, and my version of the thesis for the excellent and timely book by Erica Dhawan, Digital Body Language: How to Build Trust and Connection No Matter the Distance. 

How many of these situations can you relate to? 

• You sent an email that you wish you could take back. 
• An email you receive leaves you wondering what it really means. 
• You wonder how you come across on your Teams or Zoom meetings. 
• There is concern that your instant messages may be misinterpreted.
•  The value (and perception) of emojis gives you pause.  
• You wonder how to build trust in a working world that will continue to use the  screen-to-screen communication channel in large measure.
  

If any of these scenarios ring true for you, you are thinking about the role of digital body language, and this book is for you.

Speaking from Experience 

As a coach, trainer, blogger, and practitioner of remote leadership, I know that virtual communication increases the likelihood of miscommunication. I also know that trust is more important than ever, and perhaps harder to build. Having taught about many of these struggles, I know how real and top-of-mind they are.

It is from this place of knowledge and experience that I recommend this new book. Erica addresses the questions you have, the challenges you have experienced, and even identifies challenges you may not have considered yet but will immediately recognize. She shares fabulous examples for us as both senders and receivers in the communication process and gives practical and concrete advice.

Summary

Some of her examples will make you laugh. Others might make you cringe. Most all will make you nod your head in agreement. She addresses digital body language in all the digital communication mediums. Insights on everything from email to instant messages, to texts, to use of web cams (or not!) in virtual meetings.

When you apply the ideas in this book, you will become a better communicator, a more conscious and intentional communicator, a better teammate, and a more confident and effective leader.

I encourage you to read it and use the ideas shared – because your future success depends on it.

To your greater success and fulfillment,

Peter Mclees, Leadership Coach, Trainer and Performance Consultant

SMART DEVELOPMENT

Take the Next Step... 

Interested in learning how to develop your organization's leadership capability, culture, and employee engagement ? We begin with a collaborative discovery process identifying your unique needs and business issues. To request an interview with Peter Mclees please contact: 

Email: petercmclees@gmail.com  or  Mobile:323-854-1713

Smart Development has an exceptional track record helping service providers, ports, sales teams, restaurants, stores, distribution centers, food production facilities, wealth management services, real estate services, nonprofits, government agencies and other businesses create a strong culture, leadership bench strength, coaching skills 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.