Arent Management Consulting: Sales Superstars ~ What are they made of?

Arent Management Consulting: Sales Superstars ~ What are they made of?http://amgtconsulting.blogspot.com/2012/03/sales-superstars-what-are-they-made-of.html?spref=bl: Common traits in the Extraordinary Sales Professional I have been quite fortunate to be involved in sales virtually my entire life.  A...

Sales Superstars ~ What are they made of?

Common traits in the Extraordinary Sales Professional

I have been quite fortunate to be involved in sales virtually my entire life.  As a young boy, I would go “door to door” selling flower and vegetable seeds.  I did the same thing with a door to door selling position for a neighborhood newspaper.  Amongst other jobs through HS and college, I worked in retail selling auto parts and a major department store selling men's clothing.  I sold magazine subscriptions to small business owners representing a major National Business Organization making at least 50 calls per day and succeeding on average once or twice daily.  I sold emblematic jewelry to College and High Schools as well as Sports organizations.  In my professional career I worked primarily with small companies in the healthcare market as a Sales Professional, Training, Marketing, First and Second-Line Sales Manager.  I have seen a lot over the past 50 years and noted some “common traits” that were exhibited by Top Sales Professionals.  Today, I would like to share them with you.  

I would also encourage any feedback that you may have in case I missed something that you feel strongly about.  The hope of this blog is to characterize the key characteristics that Extraordinary Sales Professionals live by!  This listing is in no particular order since my hope is to add your thoughts and comments.

Successful Sales People need to have a “thick skin”~They cannot afford to allow rejection, which is going to happen much more than "wins",  affect their positive energies.  They need to have strong, healthy self-esteem to carry them over the hurdles that they will face on a regular basis. These special people simply “do not give up”

Assertiveness without being overbearing or overly-aggressive ~ The ability to listen and lead the sales process to fill needs. They meet challenges head-on and look for new solutions to be problem solvers.

Empathy ~ Walk in your customer’s shoes and understand your customer’s needs and wants.

Great Salespeople learn to be Consultants ~ They show empathy and listen to their customers.  Typically they are listening 80% of the time while speaking 20%.  Without going the 20 questions route, they engage with their customers and are prepared by having in-depth knowledge of the customer, product and “buying needs”.  They are masterful at applying the benefits of their products to the features of their product. What's in it for the customer is the base of their operations. 

Top Sales Professionals are Extraordinary at Planning & Organization ~ They have goals that are S.M.A.R.T. and use the appropriate data to make sure that they are selling to the top targets. (80-20).  They do the extra planning and route themselves to break down significant amounts of data into a filtered process that will allow them to spend their time efficiently.

Top Tier Sales Pros ~ Enthusiasm and excitement are contagious with these people.  At meetings, they tend to stick together and avoid anyone or anything that is negative.  They enjoy working for their organization and take special pride when they talk about their company, products and colleagues.

They have extraordinary work ethic and integrity ~  They plan their work and work their plan.  They do not wait for business to come to them, they go out and earn it. They mine the data to filter out only top targets for their individual products.  They spend time with “tougher” customers because those are the customers who will deliver. They also work extremely hard in cultivating relationships and bringing value to their customers.  They are constantly on the lookout in ways to bring greater value to their customers.

Personal Accountability ~ Over the years, this one trait is perhaps above all the others that  I have seen that represents the truly great sales person.  They go about their business as sincere, honest representatives who bring special value to their customers. You never hear these people complain or blame the company or others for their failures.  With the recent economical recession, true leaders emerged.  These people know that their actions  will determine their results and they do what is necessary to lead the pack.

As the chart above mentions, a startling 10% of the sales organization returns over half of the typical companies sales.  The amazing thing to take from this chart is the top producers are responsible for 80% of the profit of the company.  These figures are staggering and proves that the successful recruiting and retention of these people can have extraordinary impact on the company productivity.

Arent Management Consulting: Performance Management ~ Managing "Under-Performer...

Arent Management Consulting: Performance Management ~ Managing "Under-Performer...http://amgtconsulting.blogspot.com/2012/03/performance-management-managing-under.html?spref=bl: Yesterday we talked about “Managing Superstars”, today we will focus our attention on “Managing Under-performers”.  What is the differen...

Performance Management ~ Managing "Under-Performers"

Yesterday we talked about “Managing Superstars”, today we will focus our attention on “Managing Under-performers”.  What is the difference?  Aren’t we supposed to be consistent across the entire team? What caused the under-performance? Can it be remedied?  As I researched various papers on “Coaching” and “Managing” below average performance I came across a number of commonalities.  When I put everything together it basically came out to skill sets to do the job and the passion or enthusiasm that one has for their work.  If you as the manager did a good job in matching up the skill sets needed in the hiring process, the job at hand will be easier.  If it was a poor hire, lacking those abilities you have a uphill battle.  More on “Hiring” in a future blog, but let’s take a deeper dive into these two areas and come up with a plan to remedy the results.  

First of all, keep in mind that it is your job as manager to make sure that you are doing everything possible to help, assist and support your team.  Despite the fact that you may not have hired someone is not reason to “fail” that person.  As managers, we need to own up to the fact that “we” are responsible for our team’s results.  This is difficult but much needed to fully grasp the “good and bad” of management.  Nobody said that our job was easy or wasn’t at times stressful.  We need to be constantly examining what we could have done differently or better in our management skills to avoid similar failures in the future. 

I truly believe that with good coaching and leadership, setting achievable goals and using our resources wisely can change performance for the better.

Skill Sets to do the job

Re-define the skill sets that are needed to be successful.  The manner in which you do this is crucial to your outcomes.  Open discussions with the employee to gain better understanding of the “root cause” of the poor results.  Is it skill sets that need to be re-looked at and retrained?  Are valuable skills being ignored or underutilized? Assume nothing and seek to understand!

As it relates to key skill sets, always focus on the behavior and not the person.  Keep in mind that you are responsible to your team not for them.  The ultimate responsibility of management is to place people in a position where they can succeed.  Whether they choose to do so is a decision for them to bear responsibility for. It is our charge to make sure that people know that there are resources to help them if used appropriately.

Typical skill sets that will have impact on performance include: product knowledge, planning and organization, analysis, administration and individual skills required to do the job.  i.e. selling skills.  To avoid overwhelming an employee with a multitude of skill sets to improve upon, work sessions should be limited to only 1 – 2 areas.  On subsequent work sessions, follow-up on those previously discussed, if improvement is noted, document and move to another development area.  If no progress, document and remain on that skill set.

Enthusiasm, Motivation and Desire are more related to how the employee feels about himself and the environment that they work in.  Is it the environment? Has something changed at home? Why have they lost their desire? Look at yourself in the mirror – Are you the cause? Have you de-motivated them?

Ask yourself as manager if you are doing the following:

·         Are you being fair and consistent?

·         Do you focus on just the weakness and “forget” about the strengths?

·         Do you regularly recognize performance and contributions that your team is making?

·         Are you “walking your talk”?

·         Do you consistently interact with all of your people?  Work sessions with observations and discussion of goal-setting & skill development?

·         Are your expectations clear? 

·         Do your employees know what they need to do to improve?

·         Are you available to them for regular assessment?

·         Are you providing the necessary training and the resources needed for success?

·         Are you providing a supportive work environment?

As mentioned above in “skill set” section, it is important to remove opinions and emotions from any poor performance discussions, present facts and be respectful towards the employee at all times. Focus needs to remain on behavior and not be a personal attack.

Our ability as managers to uphold high standards and expectations is an essential management skill that often times can cause great anxiety and stress on both the employee and manager.  By utilizing some of these ideas, it is hopeful that we will be on our way to becoming better overall leaders.  The impact of poor performance is widespread and can quickly affect an entire team.  Top leaders master the essential skill of dealing with underperformance with the key being consistency and fairness at all times!  Always remember…Seek to Understand!

Arent Management Consulting: Performance Management ~ Managing Superstars

Arent Management Consulting: Performance Management ~ Managing Superstarshttp://amgtconsulting.blogspot.com/2012/03/performance-management-managing.html?spref=bl: Performance Managemen t is defined as the “total” process of creating a work environment or setting in which people can perform to the b...

Performance Management ~ Managing Superstars

Performance Management is defined as the “total” process of creating a work environment or setting in which people can perform to the best of their abilities.  A first line manager can have a wide range of direct reports (span of control).  Generally accepted ranges are from 5 to 12.

Consider the following scenario:  You have just been promoted to District Sales Manager and have 10 direct reports.  You are told that 2 of your people have been top performers while you also have several who have been good solid performers.  You also have 1 person who has been with the company for 1 ½ years and has consistently been below average.  Who do you work with?

As a leader time is one of your most important assets.  A costly mistake for many managers is assuming that you do not need to spend time with Star performers because their results are so strong.  ALL of the team need you and your time should be balanced to reflect that. Most often, managers spend their time with low performers.  Hopefully this blog will change your opinion.  If you believe in the 80-20 rule, you realize that 80% of your business may very well be coming from only 20% of your team.  You certainly want to spend time with these valuable team members.  If you figure out that your return is exponentially larger from top performer development, it should make sense to spend at least proportional time with them.  Unfortunately in most situations, this does not happen! Coaching top performers to develop their talents and assist you in “learning” can have immense value. The new manager should do everything possible to balance their time in the field but never lose sight of their “doers”.  

Allocation of your time supporting them will help them feel good and challenge them to continue to lead the team.    Getting a better understanding of what they want to accomplish, what motivates them and any issues that they may have particular problems with.

 

I once had the good fortune to manage such a superstar.  This sales person had personal goals of winning “President’s Council” every year. She had been with my company for six years prior to me being promoted.  She had won President’s Council 5 years in a row! Among her numerous skill sets, she had an incredible work ethic, integrity and was always building her product knowledge.  A major drawback for her was analysis.  She was a perfect example of “Paralysis from Analysis”.    Analysis was a strong point of mine and together we were able to bring value to each other.  I am happy to say that she continued to win an additional 4 trips to President’s Council before retiring.  All I needed to do was “get out of her way”.

I was fortunate to have a strong mentor and learn quickly that I could help the overall performance of the group by keeping my top performer(s) focused. Ask yourself how you can help meet their needs and assist them in achieving their goals and your efforts will be appreciated and rewarded. During your interactions and coaching sessions with top performers try to understand what holds them back. Just because they are productive doesn’t mean they’re working at their full potential. If they have been top 10%, what kept them from being top 1%? What obstacles can you remove or help them navigate to further improve results?

Involve your star performers in many aspects of your business. This will send top performers a clear message you value their thoughts, experience, and judgment. Depending on what their goals are, work on giving them greater exposure to the team and company.  It could be management development programs, training assignments, mentoring, presentations or working a conference. Provide them with opportunities to network; get them involved with other departments and outside your immediate team structure.  Show an active interest in their personal development and provide them with the tools they need to continue learning.

As mentioned earlier, your top performers have something to teach you and your team. Never think for a moment due to your management title that you cannot learn on a daily basis. Your superstars may not be able to explain exactly what they do differently but they are doing something differently. They work in their own ‘shell’ often not realizing that they are doing anything differently.  Although these top producers typically do not like to brag about their results, you may want to have a “less productive” sales person work with them sometime and report back to you what they will take away from the experience.  Word travels fast within the group and good ideas and best practices are quickly borrowed and claimed as their own.

Eventually your top performers will move to other roles within your organization. This is a crowning achievement for any manager and is one of the greatest accomplishments a manager can bring to their organization.  The ability and dedication that a first-line manager has to helping his employees accomplish their career goals is priceless.  Also keep in mind, if you do not or cannot develop your top performers….they won’t be your top performers for long.

Arent Management Consulting: Meetings can be Productive!

Arent Management Consulting: Meetings can be Productive!http://amgtconsulting.blogspot.com/2012/03/meetings-can-be-productive.html?spref=bl: Do you look forward to regularly scheduled meetings?   Personally I have looked forward to them as both an attendee and facilitator.  I ...

Meetings can be Productive!

Do you look forward to regularly scheduled meetings?  Personally I have looked forward to them as both an attendee and facilitator.  I had found meetings to be productive and a good chance to catch up with my team.  Perhaps I was lucky to have some good managers over the years that did an excellent job at making these meetings productive.  Unfortunately I have been at meetings that were boring as well.  My hope today is to share some things that can help make your meetings more productive and also change your mindset so you look forward to regularly scheduled conferences.

I worked for an organization that was built on certain core values.  As part of our culture we were committed to being highly professional and well versed in our knowledge. We had regularly scheduled team meetings on a six week basis with larger regional and national meetings routinely interspersed at the end of a quarter.  This was an expensive endeavor since our meetings were off site and many people were flown to these meetings.  Airfare, hotels, food and entertainment was the cost of doing business.

v  Why would a company go to such expense to have these meetings?

v  Were the meetings truly necessary?

v  What was the purpose of the meeting?

v  Each meeting day meant that our sales team was not in the field-how much lost revenues would this entail?

These four questions will be fundamental to this blog but quick answers to #1 and #4 are in this paragraph. Each company is different but the culture of our organization was built on professionalism and knowledge.  The company was involved in a rapidly changing environment due to technology, regulatory agencies and expansion of the organization. The amount of time and money put into building our organization was a core belief of the owners of the company.  This alone justified the expense and short-term loss of revenues associated with the meeting.  Lost revenues were quickly recovered by our improvements and strengthening of “best practices” shared at these meetings. Now that we have answered these two, the remainder of this blog will be focused on making the most out of the meeting.

Were the meetings necessary?

In environments where things are changing rapidly, it is vital to have an “ear to the ground”.  Quick and effective communication is crucial to maintenance and growth.  In addition due to the rapid expansion of our sales team, new team members were coming on board regularly.  The ability to rapidly acclimate to our company and interact with others was part of our core structure.  Our company was “family-owned” and we were able to maintain the personality of a smaller company as we grew 10 fold in a dozen years.  There was also additional learning to be done and we operated in a tightly regulated market which obligated us to comply with outside regulatory agencies.

How do we make sure that we have productive meetings?

v  Preparation ~ Begin preparing at the conclusion of the meeting that you just completed. Carry a meeting folder with you and jot down ideas as they come up.  This way you will not forget them and have a good amount of topics for possible discussion.

v  Agenda ~ Create a “pre-meeting” list of ideas that you will want to cover.  Send this out a week or two prior to the meeting.  Ask for feedback and other items that your team would like to discuss.  Finalize the agenda a day or two prior to the meeting and again submit to your team asking them to review and prepare to share ideas/best practices etc…

v  Delegate ~ Select presenters from the team to cover certain areas of the agenda.  Review all items prior to meeting to ensure that there is agreement on items and discussion.

v  Follow through ~ There is nothing as frustrating as sitting through a meeting, debating issues, reaching conclusions and making suggestions only to see absolutely nothing come of it. My “rule of thumb” for a successful meeting is that if “only one idea is generated and followed up on” it is a successful one.  We gain a lot of great ideas from meeting with our colleagues.  The ability to follow through with all suggestions and recommendations.  You can help drive this by summarizing and recapping the meeting with specifics as far as follow-up. 

v  Gratitude ~ Thank your attendees for their attendance and participation!

A few other things to be thinking about…

v  Start on time – End on time!

v  Stay focused and ask for the team to stay focused.  Set up ground rules for meeting.

v  Create a “parking lot” for other issues.  Handle after the meeting.

v  Schedule regular breaks – start back on time.

Unfortunately, I often have heard managers and representatives complain about upcoming meetings. Nothing can drain the happiness from you faster than a long, unproductive meeting. As manager you have two outcomes to a meeting.  Success or failure! Treat your meeting as a positive experience, get pumped up and you will see the results of your meeting show in increased sales.

Always remember that meetings are great times to recognize people in front of their peers.  Take a moment and look for ways to “elevate” your people when the team is together. Always share credit for the good things and do not be afraid to accept the blame for when things do not go well.

Arent Management Consulting: E-Mail Communications

Arent Management Consulting: E-Mail Communicationshttp://amgtconsulting.blogspot.com/2012/03/e-mail-communications.html?spref=bl: What would we do without e-mail?  I can think back to a time in my business life when we did not have e-mail or voicemail.  (I will disc...

E-Mail Communications

What would we do without e-mail?  I can think back to a time in my business life when we did not have e-mail or voicemail.  (I will discuss voicemail in another blog)  Life was different when we actually talked to people a bit more or used “snail mail” for important written communications and documentation.  Business communications was an art form using scientific templates depending on what form of document you were writing.  For the past 30 years, we have gradually reduced our need for professional communications and in some way have adopted e-mail and ‘texting’ as our “go to” form of “documented” communications.

Email first started in the mid 1960s and evolved massively with the ARPANET computer network.  Messages often got lost and could take as long as a week to reach their destination. They were often sent at night to minimize the cost of long-distance telephone calls. In the early 1980s, SMTP was developed to provide a more efficient protocol. SMTP allowed a single message with more than one addressee to be sent to a domain. A local server copied the message to each recipient.  In the late 80’s, CompuServe was first to go widespread with e-mail and in 1993 AOL connected their system and e-mail was worldwide!  A recent report said that last year over 7 TRILLION e-mails were sent. 

Most companies have strict policies in place regarding e-mail communications from company equipment and e-mail accounts associated with the business.  Despite these guidelines, mistakes are made with e-mail that could be grounds for immediate termination or perhaps millions of dollars in costs to the company in legal fees.  

There are so many issues that can arise from inappropriate usage of e-mail.  Here are a few to ponder:

v  Be clear. Be brief. ~ Write short email messages with a crystal clear point. Do not write long winded confusing paragraphs that leave room for misinterpretation.

·         Consider using bullet points for clarity.

v  Proofread. ~ Proofread your message multiple times. If the email deals with touchy subject matter, you may not want to communicate via e-mail or at least have a third-party read it over as well. This will give you another perspective on “understanding the message”.  Always check for spelling and grammar errors as well as “mis-used words” Be careful of homonyms which sound the same but have different meanings. Don’t rely just on “spell-check”.  It will not pick up these errors.

v  Always use appropriate “subject” headers.

v  When you are upset ~ do not use e-mail.  Take a breath, wait 24 hours!

v  Don’t Yell at your addressee by using ALL Caps.

v  Keep a continuum on the message. ~ Recognizing that we all receive hundreds of e-mails weekly, it’s dangerous to sometimes veer off the road when continuing communication on a particular subject.  This can lead to confusion and tactical errors.  Suppose you were discussing two different things with a particular employee and responded:  “Sounds great”…go for it!  How is this interpreted?  Make sure that you reference or cut and paste a particular point of the original message…You wrote…”I am concerned about hiring XYZ.  He had a felony conviction 2 years ago….”your response was….“Sounds great”…go for it! 

v  Once e-mailed, you and everyone else will always have it. ~ If you don’t think that your mother would approve of your message, do not write it and certainly do not e-mail it!  In the same vein do not forward inappropriate messaging, pictures video etc…

v  Use Proper Vocabulary ~ In the last several years, texting has become the most used form of communication amongst the younger generation.  This form of communication has also begun to enter into the business world.  Be very careful and avoid shortcuts that are common in the “texting” generation.  I am not sure if I am alone but I always thought LOL was “lots of love”.  I was corrected by my teenage children that people were actually “laughing out loud’ at my ignorance. 

Finally do not lose touch with personal communication.  If you cannot meet the person at the very least Pick up the phone! ~ While email can be a convenient communication channel, certain discussions need to be handled in person or over the phone. If you notice that the situation is starting to deteriorate, don’t send another email, it’s time to pick up the phone or arrange a face to face meeting.

Arent Management Consulting: Team Building

Arent Management Consulting: Team Buildinghttp://amgtconsulting.blogspot.com/2012/03/team-building.html?spref=bl: Individuals or Team? Anyone who knows me knows how I am going to respond but as I began to research this for my blog today I read volume...

Team Building

Individuals or Team? Anyone who knows me knows how I am going to respond but as I began to research this for my blog today I read volumes of papers that disputed my strong beliefs.  There are a number of people out there who will pick an individual over a team in a heartbeat.  I was so surprised and then I started thinking about it a bit more.  I came to the conclusion that star individuals are key assets but I still believe in the team concept.

 

·                  Why do organizations pay CEOs remarkable salaries and incentives?

·                  Star Athletes make more in one month than average people make in a lifetime.

·                  How much do some of the “A” list actors/actresses make for a 30 minute sitcom? (really 21 minutes sans commercials)

·                  World famous authors or politicians earn extraordinary honorariums for programs, conventions and appearance fees.

Does money buy quality?  In most cases, the answer is clearly Yes!  If you needed to have brain surgery...what surgeon would you rather have?  A fellow who recently completed his residency and is now in advanced fellowship with others studying under his mentor or the mentor himself.  Most people would opt for the well-respected and well-known surgeon compared to the fellow who would work with a team of interns and fellows.  Can you see where I ran into problems as I began researching individual or team? 

Think about the core of most individuals who have superior talents.  They are self confident and rarely need or want the help of others.  These people when grouped together generally have a diminished effect when put in a team environment.  Their value and contribution decreases disproportionately each time an additional person is invited or recruited to the project.  This can be seen in well accepted "80-20" rule where 80% of results come from 20% of the group.  You can also observe the same phenomenon  in the “law of diminishing returns” where results grow to a certain level at increasing increments until a certain point is reached and then the return despite extra effort begins to subside.  Another example for my "accountant" friends may be fixed and various costs and how at a certain level, we can minimize the variable costs to maximize our profits.  

I stand true to my belief in teams.  Despite my picture at the beginning of this blog...Why do “dream teams” implode?

There is no “I” in team and a group that becomes a team is stronger than all its individual parts.  The biggest issue regarding the tremendous quality of “I”s and the ability for one to gel those components into a TEAM is that building a strong lineup is not as easy as it sounds.  Some of the components of team building are as follows:

·        Leadership ~ the skills and qualities that we have talked about on several of my blogs are needed to create and maintain a positive energy and work environment to motivate and instill a commitment for following the core values of the organization.  Besides the many traits that make up a good leader (March 12, 2012   http//amgtconsulting.blogspot.com/qualities of leadership  ) or a number of other posts that I have entered including 3/8/2012 “Leaders-born or made” and 3/19/2012 “Art of Leadership”

·        There is a true need for clear communication to and amongst the team members. Communications needs strong leadership to facilitate amongst the various departments. The team members need to be able to express their feelings and share ideas.  They also need to be able to “hear” the many ideas and strategies that the group expresses. Collaboration and partnership.

      Humility and Walking the Talk needs to be at the core of building the group so that team members approach things in a positive, can-do manner.  Getting the wheels in motion to hurtle towards the “tipping point “where  “success begins to spread like wild fire”.  The group will expect the leader to “walk in their shoes” and be an example for support and guidance. 

It is incredibly challenging to get everyone to pull together and function as “one” instead of going in separate directions.  However, the reward is worth the effort!  Building teams is for the long-term success of an organization compared to short term success gained by extraordinary individual talent.

One of the most brilliant basketball players ever to play the game said:

"Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships. "

~ Michael Jordan

There are a few ideas that I would like to share before closing this blog.  Team-building activities can run the gamut from retreats to holiday parties or picnics.  The retreat is good, but it only last a couple days.  Picnics and social gatherings last a couple of hours.  Let’s work on developing teamwork on a constant basis.  We will start out small with ideas that that can be repeated often.  Opening meetings with “ice-breakers” is a quick way to get to know everyone in a fun, non-threatening manner.  T-shirts, coffe mugs, hats etc...can help build a sense of unity.

I would also pose the following so that we can not only build stronger teams for our organization but also contribute to others:

Charitable Causes:  There are so many organizations that are non-profit who could benefit from outside help.  Pick one of the following or add or own.  Both your organization and your charitable organization will be the beneficiary!

·                  Multiple Sclerosis Society

·                  Hospice

·                  Habitat for Humanity

·                  Food Kitchens

·                  American Cancer Society

·                  Adopt a Highway program

Putting your team building expertise together in helping your team feel good about working together for  an outside cause.  Sponsoring a team for a 5K can help build harmony and also physical fitness.  If tied to a charitable institution, we also help others.  The extended programs such as the Komen 3 day, 60 mile walk or duration runs such as a Run for Leukemia or similar marathons, could extend team building exposure into months of training and good fellowship. 

Pay your good fortune forward and help out at school programs where you can mentor children and bring the real business world into their classrooms.  Also, part of those large profits that you reap due to your better functioning team can be “given back” to educational programs or other charities. 

Arent Management Consulting: Effective Communications

Arent Management Consulting: Effective Communications: Effective communications in the workplace between colleagues as well as manager/employee interchange is very important in order to creat...http://amgtconsulting.blogspot.com

Effective Communications

Effective communications in the workplace between colleagues as well as manager/employee interchange is very important in order to create a positive team environment for success.  Sound communications allows us to gain a better understanding of events and people so that we can quickly resolve differences.  The ability to speak effectively with each other helps minimize the chance for conflicts, frustrations and misunderstandings which often are the results of poor messaging.

Skill sets involving communication can be learned:

·         Better Listening habits [Please refer to March 9, 2012 blog http://amgtconsulting.blogspot.com/2012/03/listening

·         Usage and Recognition of non-verbal communications

·         Reduced pressure, anxiety and tension

·         Managing emotions

·         Knowing your style and adapting to the style of your colleague.

·         Communication Types ~

o   Driver/Extrovert-Introvert

o   Evaluator -Introvert

o   Initiator/Extrovert

o   Enthusiast-Extrovert

Recognize that among the type of communicators listed above, there could be overlap into multiple communication types.  Generally you will have one dominant and one weak but also may have one or two types take over the dominant from time to time.  The important takeaway is that for effective exchanges; learn how to interact with each of these colleagues.

Drivers ~ Characterized primarily by power, authority, achievement, control and results.

·         Refrain if possible from small talk and focus on reason for meeting.

·         Avoid socialization

·         Stay on track, orderly approach and be brief.

Evaluator ~ Tend to be very detail oriented, systematic.  Benefits from seeing charts or visual presentations.

·         Similar to Drivers, stay on track.  Show more interest in idea rather than people orientation.

·         Enjoys seeing things in a structural manner.  Build on charts, graphs, data to prove point.

Initiators ~ High energy, Inspirational, Rah-Rah type personality.

·         Enjoys social interaction.  Will take risks

·         Trial and Error persona

·         More rapid change

·         Short-term outlooks – Make decisions that provide quick solutions

Enthusiast ~ Tend to be very supportive and friendly.  People-orientation, Emotional, Dreamer

·         Social relationships and want people to feel good about themselves and others. 

·         The enthusiast has a tough time in dealing with conflict and will avoid it if possible.

·         Polar opposite of driver and is intimidated by that style.

·         Laid back – go with the flow – but hates to say “no”

Usage and Recognition of Non-Verbal Communication

When we are passionate about something we often “show” that emotion with nonverbal signals.  Nodding of the head, opening your arms, facial expressions, eye contact, tone of voice can all have a dramatic impact on communicating effectively.  Likewise, when we are have anxieties and we feel stress there will be a strong tendency to convey nonverbal clues to our displeasure or negativity of our thoughts. “Shaking your head”, crossing your arms, losing eye-contact, “puzzled look” will tend to cast negative or inquisitive messaging with or without the words associated with these gestures. 

As an exercise…Try to say YES, while shaking your head NO, it is virtually impossible….

Be aware of your nonverbal communications and have control over your emotions.  If you are stressed, take a deep breath and relaz.  Knowing what you are going to say and using nonverbal to solidify your messaging will help you to gain greater understanding.

The bottom line is that nonverbal communications can and will have a much greater impact than the actual words said to your audience.  Make sure that you are aware of the ramifications.