The Perfect Sales Close (Well, almost perfect)

Truth be told. Nothings perfect. But there's a sales close that comes pretty close.

The "Perfect" Close method developed by James Muir is nearly always successful (in the 95% range), is zero pressure for you and your client, and involves just two questions It’s true. 

It doesn’t require that you change your personality or become someone you’re not, and it’s flexible enough to use on every kind of sale at every given stage.

It eliminates all of the stress and tension that some professionals feel when it comes to asking for commitments, and because it’s facilitative, it completely eliminates the negative connotation many people associate with sales.

It makes clients feel more educated, in control, and causes them to see you as a facilitator and consultant.

Here's how it works with the Perfect Close questions:

Initial Question to the customer/client/colleague: “Does it make sense for us to X so that Y?“

"John, does it make sense for us to schedule a meeting with your team so we can get their input on what would be most beneficial for them?”

Follow-Up Question: “[OK,] What is a good next step [then]?”

We are asking if the timing is right to do something. In fact, asking with those terms is a perfectly acceptable variation of the technique. "You know Bob, is the timing right for us to talk about scheduling a site visit for you and your team?"

They will expect these concessions regardless of when they close, whether it is in your desired time frame or not. Said another way, once you offer a concession, your client is expecting that concession regardless of all other factors.

Telegraphing a concession means giving that concession.
When a client answers “no “to question one, they are simply saying that the timing is not yet right for that step.

Example:
Salesperson: “Well Jeff, now that you’ve seen a full demonstration it’s pretty common to want to see it humming in a live environment at a client site. Does it make sense for us to talk about scheduling a site visit for you?

Potential client/customer: “No, I don’t think we need that yet.”

Salesperson: “Gotcha. Well, what do you think would make a good next step then?”
Softening statements like “gotcha” acknowledge that you heard them, that you understand them, and it sets up question two, “What is a good next step then?”

Variations of The Perfect Close

The Suggestion:

“Other clients or customers at this stage typically take X as the next step in their evaluation.” 

“At this stage others typically do X. Does it make sense to X? ”

The Fall Back:

Question One: “Does it makes sense to do X?“

Question Two: (if question one fails): “Clients at this stage typically do X. Does it make sense to do X?“

Question Three (if question two fails): “What’s a good next step then?”

The Add-On: once you achieve success with your ideal advance you continue on to suggest one of the additional alternate advances you have prepared.

Question One: “Does it makes sense to do X? 

“Question Two (after question one succeeds): 

“Clients/customers at this stage very often also do X. Does it make sense to do X?”

“Are there any other logical steps we should be taking right now?”

The Reverse Order

Question One: “What would you say is a good next step? “Question Two (if the client is stumped): “Does it make sense for us to X?”

A client-suggested advance does not necessarily mean it will be the best advance for them or for you. On the flip side, because the suggestion is theirs, the client will feel like they are more in control with this variation than any of the other variations

You and your prospect will get a lot of value from mapping all of the common steps at once.

End-of-quarter discounts are essentially trading margin for timing. Instead, offer the more abstract ‘Something Special.’

“Does it make sense for me to see if we can do Something Special for you if we can get everything wrapped up by the end of the quarter?”

Something Special is really just a standard "Perfect" Close question that reveals the client’s timing without telegraphing a concession.

Naturally, you adapt the time frame to suit your situation. Otherwise, I recommend you use it verbatim.

If the buyer says that it “IS possible to wrap things up “within your time frame, then you have a couple of options:

1. Ask what they would find most valuable. Not guaranteeing anything until you first talk with others inside your organization. 

2. Tell them you will go see what you can do and that you will report back. Then go discuss your options with your organization or supervisor.

Something Special accomplishes three important things: 1. It doesn’t telegraph any kind of concession or the size of that concession. 2. It reveals if the client/customer is able to do something within your suggested time frame. 3. It positions you as an advocate for the client. You are doing all this on their behalf.

The benefit of perfect close is that it accelerates the entire process and maintains the momentum of the sale. You will cover more steps in less time, and spend less time between steps.

Start practicing the "Perfect" Close on your next series of calla and watch your sales grow.

Super Dad Gum Duper Selling!

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

We help sales reps and sales organizations accelerate their sales. 

How to Navigate Difficult Conversations

A Difficult Conversation: is a discussion between two or more people where (1) conflict exists or may arise, (2) viewpoints differ, and (3) emotions are charged.

As leaders, we have an obligation to our people, our colleagues, our organization, our customers, our owners and any other stakeholders to do all that we can to assure our company’s positive and productive working environment. This means addressing problems on a timely basis – and that invariably means stepping up and having a difficult conversation(s) with those who may be the root of the problem.

When we step up to the problem and the challenges it may involve, we are sending an important message to our people, that we care about them and our organizational culture. In my opinion, if a manager isn’t willing to lead difficult conversations, they really don’t deserve their jobs (I know, it’s a tough message. I wrote it because I want you, your team and organization to grow and prosper.) 

Giving tough feedback is a difficult conversation. Confronting a top performer who "doesn't play well with others" and is prone to defensiveness is a difficult conversation. Asking a colleague whose a friend at work to refrain from interrupting you with the latest gossip is a difficult conversation. Having to fire someone is a difficult conversation. Requesting that your boss do less micromanaging and more delegating is a difficult conversation. Finding a way to tell a coworker that their breath is reminiscent of a wildebeest with questionable dietary habits is a difficult conversation.  

Regardless of the topic, difficult conversations share two traits: they’re hard and they suck. Yet, if you really want to be a leader (and it’s okay if you decide you don’t), leading difficult conversations with care and candor is not something you can neglect, even if you’re convinced you can work around them or they’re not that important given you’re long to-do list.

The skill of leading difficult conversations comes with practice (Question to self: “When was the last time I practiced having a difficult conversation before I had the conversation?" Assuming you had one. 😉). And lots of awkward attempts and outright failures. I could cite in my own life and with the people I've known and coached story after story of failures so terrible and haunting you’d never even consider stepping up to the responsibility. That’s not the point. The point is any difficult leadership skill requires a gym and muscle building analogy, so here you go. If you want biceps (And I do), there’s no shortcut—you’ve got to do the reps.

You must practice, role-play (I know, ugh!), and rehearse these conversations repeatedly. You’ll get better over time, and it won’t be so awful. But here’s the part you probably didn’t expect: there’s a strong possibility (Depending on your “relationship bank balance.”) you’ll provide someone the kind of insight nobody has offered them before. Think about that for a moment. You, as a leader can help break lifelong habits, shine a light on blind spots, and help someone change their personal brand for the better. Unlike countless other leaders who are well-intentioned but never exercise the courage to be honest while allowing the person to hold onto their dignity as a human being, you can change the entire trajectory of someone’s life. Now that’s leadership in action.

If you’re willing to allow for such a possibility, I guarantee it will change the way you think about leading difficult conversations. There’s an art to delivering feedback and facilitating insight that unequivocally makes the necessary points AND keeps a colleague’s self-esteem and self-confidence intact. Any jacked-up jerk can deliver harsh and demeaning feedback. It takes diplomacy, empathy and thoughtfulness to ensure that the difficult conversation keeps the receiver’s self-esteem strongly intact, while giving them hope and a path forward on how to improve.

What’s the “secret?” Let me suggest three things: 

1. Good intent (See balancing care and candor below);
2. Practice (With a friend or accountability partner) and learning from experts;
3. Engage a leadership coach. 

Check out these posts for more information about coaching.

COACHING WORKS: HERE's WHY

SMART COACHING WORKS: HERE's PROOF

Balancing Care and Candor

Here is how care and candor work together in leadership:

Caring Values the Person While Candor Values The Person’s Potential. To lead successfully, it is important for you to value people. That is foundational to solid relationships. Caring for others demonstrates that you value them. However, if you want to help them get better, you must be honest about where they need to improve. That shows that you value the person’s potential and requires candor.

If you’re candid with someone but with their benefit in mind, it doesn’t have to be harmful. It can be like the work of a surgeon.  It may hurt, but it shouldn’t harm. As a leader, you must be willing and able to do that. If not, you won’t be able to help your people grow and change.

Caring Establishes the Relationship While Candor Expands The Relationship. The things that usually help to establish a relationship are common ground and care. But those things usually aren’t enough to make a relationship grow. To expand a relationship, candor and open communication are required. Many leaders have a difficult conversation that they know they need to have but are avoiding. Usually they are reluctant for one of two reasons: either they don’t like confrontation, or they fear that they will hurt the person they need to talk to.

Caring Defines the Relationship While Candor Directs The Relationship. Solid relationships are defined by how people care about one another. But just because people care about one another doesn’t mean that they are going anywhere together.  Getting the team moving together to accomplish a goal is the responsibility of the leader, and that often requires candor.

Therefore, leaders give up the right to cater to an individual if it hurts the team or the organization.” If you want to lead people well, you need to be willing to direct them candidly.

Caring Should Never Suppress Candor While Candor Should Never Displace Caring. The bottom line, which has already become very clear, is that good leaders must embrace both care and candor. You can’t ignore either. So, to help you strive to keep the balance between the two, here’s a candor checklist for working with people. Before having a difficult conversation, make sure that you can answer yes to the following questions:

• Have I invested in the relationship enough to be candid with them?
• Do I truly value them as people?
• Am I sure this is their issue and not mine?
• Am I sure I’m not speaking up because I feel threatened?
• Is the issue more important than the relationship?
• Does this conversation clearly serve their interests and not just mine?
• Am I willing to invest time and energy to help them change?
• Am I willing to show them how to do something, not just say what’s wrong?
• Am I willing and able to set clear, specific expectations?

As leaders, we must have courage to come out from behind ourselves. We cannot ignore a problem by our seeing reality as we would like it to be. No, we must accept the true reality and do our best to resolve a problem. This is our responsibility. 

Want to know how good you are at this leadership essential? Here are five simple statements: see if they are true of you (if you find it difficult to step back and be objective about the answers, ask a colleague who knows you to help you out).

• I don’t avoid difficult, painful or negative issues and address them when they arise.
• I’m direct, but graceful and diplomatic when addressing such issues.
• I don’t fudge things—I’m clear and unambiguous when discussing a difficult issue.
• When discussing difficult or negative issues with people, I work hard to ensure there are no ‘hidden agendas’—on my part or others.
• I’m open and non-defensive when dealing with difficult or negative issues.

Having difficult conversations is an art, and if we are going to be an effective leader, we must practice in order to develop these skills. (Coach Knight remarked, "Everyone wants to be on a championship team but nobody wants to come to practice.")

Click here to learn how to lead a difficult conversation with an employee whose not being a team player.

Also, there are helpful books, numerous articles, TED talks and YouTube videos which will help prepare us to address rather than avoid conflict. I particularly value the book Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most. It's a gem!

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 culture, employee engagement and leadership capability? 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, 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.

Three Proven Ways To Elevate Your Leadership Impact In 2020

Personal growth and by extension, leadership growth, does not happen automatically because managers are working long hours or because they have a lot of interactions with others. Leadership development must be planned, deliberate and consistent. 

There are three primary ways to develop leadership capability.

The first way is to study leadership and apply the lessons learned. In addition to Smart leadership workshops there are plenty of great podcasts and videocasts, webinars, blogs, meet-up groups to supplement your company-sponsored formal leadership education.

The second is to learn deeply from your experience at work. For example, ask to be assigned to a challenging project that will provide you an opportunity to exercise your leadership. Remember that leadership is about influencing positive change. Also, stay alert. Observe situations from different perspectives. Watch how different people handle leadership challenges. Have a teachable spirit and ask for feedback and be open to criticisms about your performance. And above all don’t be afraid to fail. You’ll learn more from failing once or twice than from succeeding all the time.

The third is to engage a professional leadership coach (Smart Coaching Works: Here's Proof.) A professional leadership coach can help you by providing much needed support and strategies for not only surviving but thriving under challenging circumstances. It is a personalized process that provides clarity on what success would look like, understanding the obstacles and barriers that get in the way of achieving it, and specific action steps to take that will lead to a positive outcome. Through active listening and powerful questioning, a coach will help the coachee maximize their potential and move toward a preferred future. 

In addition to these three ways, we’ve identified and documented 28 Leadership Challenges that present the greatest opportunities for our coaching clients to elevate their impact as leaders and drive business results.

We invite you and your team of leaders to take our leadership Development Assessment by:

1) Clicking on the following link:  Leadership Development Assessment

2) Downloading the file to your computer.

3) Completing the assessment (Which is a fillable PDF file.).

4) Reviewing the results with your one-up manager, a trusted adviser or colleague.

The assessment is really an inventory of best practices that will make you and your team better leaders. We encourage you to take each of them to heart. How you choose to implement these is up to you—pick one a day if you’re feeling up to, or one a week. Whatever your cadence, do your best to take the challenges off the pages of the assessment and into your real-world leadership roles.

Check out these related posts:

The Most Powerful Lessons a Leader Should Learn

Great Leaders Like Great Athletes Never Stop Practicing the Fundamentals

Remember, everything rises and falls on leadership. And leadership rises and falls on character and conversational intelligence.

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 culture, employee engagement and leadership capability? 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, 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.

26 Ways to Savor Life in 2020

When we get older we start to see the reality of life's fleeting nature. We can use this knowledge as an opportunity to see each day, each moment as a golden opportunity for enjoyment, happiness, and love.

If we live to age 90, from birth to death we have 32,850 days on Earth. Our Earth has been around 4.55 billion years. Our life here is just a blip.

This awareness provokes a lot of soul searching for many of us. We have thought, read and studied a lot about what comprises a happy life and have determined five areas that are key to enjoying life to the fullest.

1. Living in integrity. This is something you must define yourself by creating your own personal operating system. But in general it includes living in alignment with your values and your personal/religious beliefs; being authentic and honest with yourself and others; and living in balance financially.

2. Making a contribution. Whether through our work or otherwise, we all need to feel we have a purpose and have made some mark on the world. We need to feel that our lives have some intrinsic meaning. Having a passion and sharing it with the world provides tremendous joy and fulfillment.

3. Having good relationships. We need loving, supportive, and healthy relationships with romantic partners, family, friends, and co- workers. We certainly know the impact of bad relationships. Good ones offer us joy, contentment, and connectedness.

4. Being healthy. When we feel good physically, we feel good mentally and emotionally. We we feel bad physically, we feel bad all over. It is hard to enjoy life when your physical health is poor.

5. Having pleasure. There are so many things in this big world to enjoy--more than we could ever experience in one lifetime. If we are living in the framework our integrity, then pleasurable experiences should be pursued and enjoyed regularly--without guilt. Having fun is essential to savoring life.

As you examine these five areas in your own life, remember that first defining your integrity and creating your own personal operating system will make it far easier to define the other four areas. When we live outside of our integrity, it casts a shadow over all other areas of our lives.

Here are 26 ideas for savoring life and living it to the fullest in these five critical areas:

1. Define or refine your values and personal operating system. Know what is important to you, and seek to live in accordance with that.

2. Restore your integrity wherever you have stepped out of it. Make amends, correct the situation, shift the balance. This will reduce agitation and guilt.

3. Be true to yourself. Be authentic. Look for ways that you are pretending, acting to impress, or living out some other person's expectations rather than your own.

4. Examine your job. You spend many hours a day in this job. If you don't love it, or at least like it, you are frittering away a good chunk of your life. This is imperative for a happy life. Take control of your career.

5. Know your passions. If you don't know what you are passionate about, find out. Take the time to do this, and then find a way to regularly incorporate your passion into your daily life. Discovering your passion dramatically increases happiness.

6. Give to others daily. Share your knowledge, passions, skills, and time with someone else on a regular basis. This doesn't require a grand gesture. Impacting one life can make a huge ripple on the world. It feels good.

7. Show kindness. In the smallest interactions, be kind. Choose kindness over being right, indignant, smarter, richer, or too busy. Kindness feels good to you and to the recipient. And it's infectious.

8. Release some stuff. If you have loads of material things that you don't use, release them. Give them away to someone who can use them. This is tremendously satisfying.

9. Release some money. If you have plenty of money, use it for good. Contribute it in a way that makes one person or the whole world a better place.

10. Just listen. Listen to someone's story, their pain, their joyful event, their boring anecdote, their fears. Give someone the gift of really hearing them.

11. Nurture your friendships. Be the initiator. Express your feelings for them. Learn more about your friends. Be there for good and bad times.

12. Be the person you want in others. Define what you want in a relationship, then be that person yourself. Like attracts like.

13. Let it go. Be quick to forgive and quick to forget. Holding grudges and nurturing old wounds is unhealthy and makes you unhappy.

14. Know when to let go. However, some relationships can pull you down. Take a look at those in your life. Is it time to let go? How much energy are you giving away to them?

15. Expand your network. Actively meet new people. They can enhance your life, introduce you to new ideas, pleasures, and other new friends.

16. Love yourself. A healthy love for yourself with healthy self-confidence creates healthy relationships.

17. Communicate often. We so often misunderstand and misinterpret one another. Or we say things we don't really mean. Learn healthy communication skills and use them often, particularly in your primary relationship.

18. Educate yourself on nutrition. Read books, blogs, or magazines about proper eating for good health. Then eat that way. If you are unhealthy, it will undermine your happiness in all areas of your life.

19. Go outside every day. Sunlight boosts your mood and provides vitamin D. Being in nature enlivens your soul and makes you feel connected to the world around you.

20. Get moving. You know this. Get some exercise. Walk, bike, run, swim, dance, stretch, lift weights. You can make it fun. Take care of this remarkable house for your soul.

21. Cut back, simplify, reduce stress. Find balance in your life by letting some things go. You can't do or be everything. Pick a few things, and enjoy them fully. Identify where you are stressed, and deal with it.

22. Find an outlet. There are difficult times in every life. Find someone, a professional coach, counselor, minister, or friend, who can help you through them. Talking about your problems with someone trusted helps you heal and cope and stay mentally and emotionally healthy.

23. Play often. Play shouldn't end at childhood. Have fun regularly. Define what is fun for you and go do it every week.

24. Increase your travel (Local or abroad). The world truly is your oyster. There is so much to explore and see and enjoy. Pick some places that intrigue you. Save your money. Plan some trips.

25. Unplug. Television and computer have pulled us away from real living. Actively reduce the amount of time you spend in front of them. Fill that time with pleasurable activities instead. Read, cook, play a sport, meet with friends, do something creative, make love, meditate, go to the theater, look at the stars, chop wood, carry water.

26. Think less. Be more. Act more. Negative thoughts create negative feelings. Actively seek to stop negative thinking, and just be in the moment. If negative thoughts and feelings are getting intrusive, do something distracting.

Imagine starting your year that way!

Pick one of the activities above and savor it.

It takes thought, planning, and a dose of wisdom to create a happy life--a life that you can savor. Experience teaches us these lessons, and wisdom helps us to embrace them.

To your greater fulfillment and success,

Peter Mclees, Leadership Coach, Facilitator and Performance Consultant

SMART DEVELOPMENT
Email: petercmclees@gmail.com  
Mobile: 323-855-1713

Smart Development has an exceptional track record helping service providers, ports, sales teams, restaurants, stores, branches, distribution centers, food production facilities, 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.

Sage Advice from a 2,000 Year Old Slave

"The first person you lead is yourself."  
                                                                                   
                                     -Epictetus of  Hierapolis  55 to 135 C.E.

Greetings of the Season!

Standing in line at the register the other day in Vancouver, WA,  I couldn’t help overhearing the women on her cell phone in front of me.

Her mother was mean to her. Her employer didn’t appreciate her. Her kids disrespected her. 

She exuded a "Ba Humbug!" vibe. (Scrooge would have been proud.)

By the time she was done, I could have sworn I heard the sun was too bright outside and the birds were singing too loud.

Some things never change…

If a citizen of ancient Greece or Rome were magically transported into the modern era, he would be astounded by the current state of agriculture, transportation, housing, medicine, architecture, technology, and living standards.

But humanity itself would offer few surprises. We remain the same flawed human beings we always were, struggling with the same human faults our ancestors wrestled with millennia ago.

That is why ancient philosophers still speak to us—if we listen. The wisdom of the classical world transcends place and time.

The Stoic philosophy, for example, dominated the ancient world for nearly 600 years, beginning in the late 4^th century B.C.E.

Stoics believed that reason was supreme. Tranquility is only achieved, they taught, by suppressing irrational emotions—like regrets about the past—and accepting life’s unavoidable disappointments and setbacks.

One of the great exponents of Stoicism was a slave named Epictetus, born around 55 C.E. in the eastern outreaches of the Roman Empire.

Epictetus had few advantages in life. Aside from being born into slavery, he had a permanent physical disability. And he was poor, living a simple life in a small hut with no possessions.

Yet he became one of the leading thinkers of his age. When Epictetus was freed from slavery—we still don’t know how—he set up a philosophical school on the northwest coast of Greece, spending his days lecturing on how to live with dignity and tranquility.

As his reputation for wisdom grew, people flocked to hear him. One of his most distinguished students was the young Marcus Aurelius Antonius, who became ruler of the Roman Empire.

Epictetus was not one for airy theories. In his view, the job of philosophy is to help ordinary people deal with the challenges of everyday life. And his words, captured in a great book, The Art of Living, are a wise today as when he spoke them nearly 2,000 years ago:

“Keep your attention focused entirely on what is truly you own concern, and be clear that what belongs to others is their business and none of yours. (Today's version is "stay in your lane.")

One of the clearest marks of the moral life is right speech….Glib talk disrespects others. Breezy self-disclosure disrespects yourself….If need be, be mostly silent or speak sparingly.

Let the quality of your deeds speak on your behalf. We can’t control the impressions others from about us, and the effort to do so debases our character. So, if anyone should tell you that a particular person has spoken critically of you, don’t bother with excuses of defenses. Just smile and reply, I guess that person doesn’t know about all my other faults. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have mentioned only these.”

Now is the time to get serious about living your ideals. Once you have determined the spiritual principles you wish to exemplify, abide by these rules as if they were laws.”

Epictetus had a deep understanding of human beings, of society…and of life. But he also understood death, too.

“I must die. If the time is now, I’m ready…How will I die? Like a man who gives up what belongs to another….A good death can only come from a good life.”

Epictetus argued that our prime motivation should be inner achievements, not outer ones. The right attitudes and values allow you to flourish no matter what the external world throws at you. Inner achievement lays the foundation for peace, tranquility, and personal freedom. And so he taught that true success comes from focusing ourselves within:

“We cannot choose our external circumstances, but we can always choose to respond to them.

“If someone irritates you, it is only your own response that is irritating you. Therefore, when anyone seems to be provoking you, remember that it is only your judgment of the incident that provokes you.”

“Those who are dedicated to a life of wisdom understand that the impulse to blame something or someone is foolishness, that there is nothing to be gained in blaming, whether if be others or oneself.”

“

If anyone is unhappy, remember that his unhappiness is his own doing…Nothing else is the cause of anxiety or loss of tranquility except our own opinion.”

“He is wise who doesn’t grieve for the things he doesn’t have, but rejoices for the things he does have.”

“Fortify yourself with contentment, for it is an impregnable fortress.

Whether you are janitor or a CEO, Epictetus insists that your main job in life---your most important work---is improving yourself. Yet, always a realist, he emphasized moral progress over moral perfection.

Today Epictetus is widely recognized as the world’s first philosopher of personal freedom (Viktor Frankl picks up on the theme in Man’s Search for Meaning). Its attainment, he insisted, is the result of mastering our thoughts, yielding to the inevitable, pursuing virtue rather than wealth and diverting our attention from constant desire, yearning and attachment.

In a modern translation of the Art of Living, philosophical writer Sharon Lebell observes that, “His was a moral teaching stripped of sentimentality, piousness, and metaphysical mumbo-jumbo. What remains is the West’s first and best primer for living the best possible life.”

Ironic, isn’t it? A man born into slavery was among the first to show us a path to personal liberation.

“Anyone is free who lives as he wishes to live,” said Epictetus. “And no one is free who is not master of himself.”

In the words of another Stoic, Seneca:

“As long as you live, keep learning how to live.”

To Your Greater Success and Fullfillment

Peter C Mclees, Principal

Leadership Coach, Trainer and Performance Consultant

Mobile: 323-854-1713

Email: petercmclees@gmail.com

We help organizations and leaders accelerate their results.