I have not always been a fan of Apple. Ten years ago, I did not have a single Apple product in the home or business.
Today, I am a serious fan of Apple because their products make our lives more productive and fun. Every team member in our office has an iMac or MacBook Pro.
My family has several iPods, iPads, and iPhones, and we just brought in an iMac into our home office.
How is it possible that a single company can create multiple products that literally create or shape multiple industries?
It became possible with the commitment of Steve Jobs.
The opportunity is obvious. How does one emulate the best management practices of Apple? Because Apple is hyper-secretive, their practices are difficult to study. Furthermore, because Steve Jobs was a very misunderstood and recognized brilliant man, many believe that the management secrets that created Apple are difficult to reproduce.
I beg to differ.
I have read several books about Apple and the best thus far is “Inside Apple: How America’s Most Admired – and Secretive – Company Really Works.” by Adam Lashinsky.
By the way, I read “Inside Apple” on my iPad using the iBook app. If you are not using it, I recommend doing so.
“Inside Apple” is well-written and a must read for those serious about creating excellence in their organization. This book is on my “virtual shelf” right next to “Winning” by Jack Welch.
Apple’s culture may be characterized by five core beliefs that are seemingly solid and non-negotiable. These core beliefs are:
- Clear Direction
- Individual Accountability
- Sense of Urgency
- Constant Feedback
- Clarity of Mission
In working with companies large and small over the last decade, I have come to see serious problem areas around these core beliefs.
- How clear is the direction of your company?
- Is each employee team member accountable?
- Is there a sense of urgency to improve your product / service?
- Is your feedback candid or watered down?
- How clear is your mission?
Great companies are crystal clear about these five core beliefs, and they do not negotiate because what the company does needs to be aligned with the employee.
Happy Monday Everyone!
Welcome to the latest edition of Human Capital Strategies! Each week, we give you insight into the 5 most interesting blog articles of the week. They will help you improve your most important assets, your people and yourself. This week, we feature posts, which contain information on communication skills, conflict resolution, sales strategy, and even a few inspiring stories!
We hope you enjoy!
See you next week!
Denny Coates, Building Personal Strength Blog: The Secret to Great Achievement- You Really Gotta Wanna - In this post, Denny points out that the 2011 NCAA men’s division 1 basketball tournament turned out to be a very strange one. Not 1 number one seed made it into the Final Four! Now if you watch any basketball at all, you know th
at this barely happens! Denny goes on to explain that it happened because the underdogs wanted the win more, so they fought harder! Denny explains why this is so important to do in life! Check out this post to see how you can achieve greatness!
Follow Denny on twitter: @dennycoates
Janet Stucchi, Inside Sales Experts Blog: Sales Lessons from ‘Angry Birds’ - Are you addicted to those little birds and green pigs, it’s ok if you are, you are not alone! Many people are! In this post, Janet explains some sales lessons that are inspired from the much-loved game of Angry Birds. So what are you waiting for? Tear yourself away from Angry Birds for one minute and check out this great post!
Follow Janet on twitter: @jstucchi01
Lisa Petrilli, Visionary Leadership: What Leaders Need to Know about Resentment and Conflict - Do your friends or colleagues resent you for something good in your life? Do you resent your friends or colleagues? In this post, Lisa examines resentment and conflict. Lisa discusses the bestselling book, “Have a Nice Conflict”. Check out this post to see what the authors have to say about conflict.
Follow Lisa on twitter: @LisaPetrilli
Kati Nelson, Tough Motivation: Stop Being a Sissy La-La - We all know them…complainers! If you have to constantly deal with complainers, or if you are a complainer yourself, it is time to put a STOP to it! In this post, Kati explains that she get’s it, we all have bad days! Kati lists two ways to handle life when it throws you lemons!
Follow Kati on twitter: @NelsonKati
Michael Hyatt, Intentional Leadership: The Secret to Happiness as you Get Older - Are you in need of some inspiration in your life? In this post, Michael provides a wonderful Youtube video. Anthony Robbins interviews Alice Herz Sommer, a Holocaust survivor who is 108 years old. Alice shares her secret to always staying happy. So take a few minutes and hear her story. You won’t regret it!
Follow Michael on twitter: @MichaelHyatt
I am sure you have heard the nursery rhyme "Old McDonald Had A Farm." Well, he did not have a farm. There is a McDonald that is far more popular than the nursery rhyme, and you probably regrettably ate it for lunch. Yes, I am talking about the franchise that averages billions of dollars in revenue each year and serves 29 million people everyday in 121 countries, McDonalds.
McDonalds was established in 1955 by Ray Kroc. The history of Ray Kroc's success goes far beyond his years when scientists first began using phrenology to predict the performance of an individual based on individual differences in the skull and their psychology. Phrenologists believed that you could predict the performance of an individual by having a client give them descriptions of themselves and find bumps on the skull that fit this description.
The idea of phrenology seems very irrational today. However, when Ray Kroc was 4 years old he underwent a phrenological examination predicting that he would someday work in the food industry. Maybe they were predictive after all?
Although phrenology is no longer used today and seems inadequate at predicting one's performance, the idea of predicting the future performance of an individual is actually more accurate than ever through the use of Personality Profiles.
The Personality Profiles used by The Rainmaker Group team go far beyond mere speculation and go much more in depth than phrenology did. Personality Profiles give leaders of a company the ability to see the Behaviors, Values/Motivators, and Attributes of a candidate during the hiring process.
While phrenology lit the flame for predicting an individual's performance, Personality Profiles have made hiring far more predictive than the phrenological examination.
Other blogs you may enjoy:
Using the DISC Personality Profile & the Platinum Rule in Business
Some HR Professionals Are Stuck In The Stone Ages
Rethinking the Real Cost of Pre-Employment Personality Profiles
Source: Lawson, R., Graham, J., Baker, K. (2007). A History of Psychology Globalization, Ideas, and Applications. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.
Low sales performers drain the lifeblood from your profits and occupy valuable sales management time.
You already know all too well... Some sales people produce far more and some produce far less.
Take a few minutes to pull up the sales performance numbers of your sales team.
- Who are in the top ten percent of your sales performers? What did they produce?
- Who are in the bottom ten percent of your sales performers? What did they produce?
Subtract the bottom ten percent average from your top ten percent average. This number is what we refer to as the "Rainmaker Performance Spread."
Our research has found that the top ten percent typically out-produce the bottom ten percent by 10 to 20 times.
What effect does the "Rainmaker Performance Spread" have on sales?
The bigger the spread between your top and bottom performers, the increased potential you have to significantly enhance your bottom line.
What should you do right now to improve your sales productivity?
- Use a validated sales personality test to identify sales performance potential in your existing sales team.
- Purposefully identify and hire the best sales talent possible.
When you hire the best sales talent possible, you naturally improve your sales team and profitability.
Check out some of our other posts on sales:
When Buying or Selling a Company, Evaluate the Sales Team
How To Be A Rainmaker Sales Professional
Leveraging Your Sales Talent Selection Process
Happy Monday Everyone!
Welcome to the latest edition of Human Capital Strategies! Each week, we give you insight into the 5 most interesting blog articles of the week. They will help you improve your most important asset, your people. This week, we feature posts, which contain information on leadership development, sales strategy, employee engagement and much more!
See you next week!
TribeHR, Workplace Tribes Blog: What is a “top” employer? - We have all done it, as soon as a list of “top employers” gets posted; we click through to see where we should be working. Many employers often wonder how to get their organization on the list. This post from TribeHR explains what truly makes a top employer!
Follow TribeHR on twitter: @tribehr
Ron Karr, Ron Karr’s Business Development Blog: 4 Steps to Close the Deal - Do you find yourself having the most problems when it comes to closing the sale? Maybe it is time to take a further look into the problem. In this post, Ron explains, “The problem is not closing, but rather opening.” Take a look at this post to see how you can properly open a sale for a more successful outcome.
Follow Ron on twitter: @ronkarr
Nancy Nardin, Smart Selling Tools Blog: Show & Tell: What Kindergarten Taught Me About Selling - Remember the good old days? When you would get something new, and couldn’t wait
to run to school the next day to show it off in show or tell. In this post Nancy compares the teachers tactics of show and tell to sales strategies. Nancy states, “Sometimes in sales, we forget about the showing.” So what are you waiting for? Check out this post to see how you can stop just telling and start showing and telling in sales!
Follow Nancy on twitter: @sellingtools
Linda Fisher Thorton, Leading in Context Blog: Top 100 Thinkers in Management, Leadership and Business - This is an excellent post containing many lists that feature the top 100 thinkers in management, business, and leadership. Linda has searched the web for the best of the best and provides them in an easy to use blog post. What could be better access to the top of the top in business, management, and leadership, right at your fingertips?
Follow Linda on twitter: @leadingincontxt
Dan Rockwell, Leadership Freak Blog: How to Enhance Authority Without Being Bossy
- How many “leaders” do you know that look down on you from the top and treat you accordingly. There are too many out there. In this post, Dan explains hot o lead from the bottom. Dan provides many questions to ask when you find your self in a similar situation. Dan states, “Enhance and extend your authority by using it less. Use your authority to give authority.” Check out this post to gain a better understanding of leading from the bottom up.
Follow Dan on twitter: @theleadershipfreak
The recent film, Moneyball, is based upon actual events in 2001 – 2002. Moneyball shares the fascinating story of the Oakland Athletics and their general manager, Billy Beane’s passionate effort to put together a competitive team relative to clubs like the NY Yankees but with limited financial resources.
The primary storyline of Moneyball is that the collective wisdom of baseball players, managers, coaches, and scouts is subjective, biased, and often wrong. Statistics such as stolen bases, runs batted in (RBI), and batting average were typically used to gauge the future potential of players. This was/is flawed reasoning.
Beane meets Peter Brand, a Yale University economics graduate with innovative ideas on how to assess the value of an individual ball player. Prior to Brand’s approach, scouts relied on their experience and intuition, which was biased. Brand’s statistical strategy selected players based almost exclusively on each player’s on base percentage (OBP) and slugging percentage.
In other words, Brand identified a statistical model that predicted exactly what contributed to a successful baseball player and team.
As a result of this statistical approach, Beane and Brand pulled together a team of undervalued players for the Oakland Athletics with high OBPs. These undervalued players were not on the “radar scope” of scouts because each player had something that made them less valuable from a traditional scout perspective.
The scouts were looking for "pretty players," while Beane and Brand were looking for players who could get on base and score runs. As you can imagine, the scouts and team manager did not support the new strategy.
As I watched Moneyball, I saw parallels to how talent is typically selected in Corporate America.
Over the last decade, my team has been using a statistical approach to identify top talent that predicts they will do a job well – particularly sales people. The approach used by my team to help organizations find top talent is much like that of Beane and Brand’s approach to finding the top baseball team. Like the two, we also run into a roadblock within organizations much like the scouts and team managers were to Beane and Brand, except our roadblock is called HR.
The scouts and team managers of the Athletic’s were very stuck in their old ways and unwilling to try a new statistical approach. HR is also stuck in their old ways and refuses to hire based on statistical evidence. HR is stuck in their traditional biased ways when it comes to selecting talent – even in the face of obvious statistical data suggesting their way allows low performers to get on the "bus".
My question to you is, “Do you have an objective employee selection program that cuts past human bias?” There are multiple studies demonstrating that the interview process is inherently biased. Human beings are inherently biased. HR is human, they are biased too.
The only effective way to id
entify top performing talent more consistently and to reduce the potential for human bias is to develop a Job Benchmark. When a validated personality profile test is used to identify the core Behaviors, Values, and Attributes necessary to do the job well, better talent is identified.
The approach used by Beane and Brand in Moneyball led them to wins. It also led the Boston Redsox to a World Championship when they adopted the approach the following season. If you want your organization to WIN, you have to remove human bias from the hiring process by using validated personality profiles to find the right person for a job.
You are the leader of a team that consists of team members that are calling in sick often, arriving later to work, leaving work early, prolonging their breaks, taking more vacations, spending more time at the water cooler, and just not working.
Do you have a lazy team? Are you handing out boring tasks? What is the problem?
Your team is lacking motivation, and rather than trying to motivate them with an office party or bonuses for everyone that performs well, maybe you should first ask this important question.
What will motivate each individual team member?
Not every person is motivated in the same way. However, finding what motivates an employee can be complicated. You have to understand what they value based on their personality style.
The following is a guide to Workplace Motivators® that can help you understand your employee’s motivation and get them back to work!
- Individualistic/ Political – These employees want to take control of their future and the future of others. They desire to be in power. One of the best ways to motivate this person is by putting them in charge of a project. If you are not sure whether or not they can handle this power, start with a small project.
- Utilitarian/ Economic – These are the employees you can motivate with a bonus. Their desire is to reach a return on investment. A small pay raise or bonus for work well done could go a long ways with these employees.
- Theoretical – The motivation for this personality type is an appetite for knowledge. Provide opportunities for this type of employee to do working tasks that require them to learn new things.
- Aesthetic – The employee with aesthetic motivations is a bit more complicated to manage. This employee is motivated by form, balance, harmony, or a combination of all three. To find what motivates this person, find out their interests. For example, an employee may like sculptures, so talking with them about their interest or allowing them to display a sculpture in their office can help to motivate him or her.
- Social/ Altruistic – This employee is motivated by helping others. Giving them tasks that helps him or her to make a difference in someone’s life will keep them motivated.
- Traditional/ Regulatory – This type of employee is focused on a systematic way of living. It is important that their personal standards or rules are in alignment with that of the organization. This may be the most difficult type of employee to motivate because he or she believes that his or her personal system is the best way of doing things. Often the person’s religion is the basis for his or her's personal system. Motivate this person by putting them in a position that allows him or her to work according to their systems. However, if the person’s systems conflict with that of the organizations, he or she might not be suited for the organization.
When you understand the psychology of your employees, you can find what truly motivates them. Using the Workplace Motivators® will help you to do exactly that!
Happy Monday Everyone!
Welcome to the latest edition of Human Capital Strategies! Each week, we give you insight into the 5 most interesting blog articles of the week. They will help you improve your most important asset, your people. This week, we feature posts, which contain information on employee engagement, employee retention, communication skills, sales strategy and much more!
Enjoy, See you next week!
Bryce Christiansen, Balanced WorkLife Balance Blog: Why You Will Fail to Have a Great Career - We all want a “Great” career. In this post, Bryce describes the popular TED talk by the economist Larry Smith. Bryce does an excellent job of summing up the TED talk by Larry which explains why people will fail if they are striving for a great career. Larry states, “Good jobs are disappearing. There are great jobs and great careers…and there are high workload, high stress, blood sucking, soul destroying kinds of jobs… and nothing really in between.” So what are you waiting for, check out this post, if you have some extra time, take a look at Larry’s TED talk that Bryce provides at the end.
Laura Schroeder, Compensation Café: Retention v. Engagement: Stay or Play? - Can you describe the difference of retention and engagement? Laura breaks it down in this post. Laura states, “Although there’s overlap between how you approach engagement and retention-after all, engagement is the best way to retain people as long as you don’t grossly underpay- the target audience is a bit different.” Laura also touches the subject of staying or playing.
Dan Rockwell, Leadership Freak Blog: 10 Powerful Tips for Connecting with Powerful People - We have all been there before. You are trying to connect with a powerful person, and you completely mess it up. In this post, Dan explains how to properly connect with powerful people. Dan provides the list of Jesse Lyn Stoner’s 10 power tips for connecting with powerful people. The main point of this post is to discover, “Where’s the balance between fitting into corporate culture and standing out?”
Paul McCord, Sales and Sales Management Blog: Guest Article: Overcoming “Failure to Impact” Syndrome, by Steven Rosen - In this post, Paul tell is like it is. He explains that we all make up remedies to do better next year. The problem is, our average “quick fixes only scratch the surface”. Paul helps you determine if you have the “failure to impact syndrome”. Check out this post if you would like to overcome the “failure to impact syndrome” and learn how to increase sales.
Kate Nasser, Smart SenseAbilities Blog: Leaders, Pain Free Journey to Engage Employees - It is a question asked everyday by leaders and managers around the world, “How do you engage employee accountability?” In this post, Kate explains how you can “repaint your picture leaders and take this pain free journey to engaging employee accountability.” So what are you waiting for? Join Kate and explore how you can really create accountability in your organization today!
Without sales, nothing happens. The best product / service offering will not sell well unless the sales department is optimized - the right sales people are doing the right things. 
The sales department drives the future of every company.
Whether you are considering an acquisition or merger or considering the future sale of your business within 3-5 years - it pays to review the following four key sales areas that shape future revenues in a big way.
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Sales Customer Relationship Management Software (CRM) to track Customer relationships and sales team member activity. If you are not using a tool like Salesforce to track Customer relationships, activities, leads, contacts, accounts, and opportunity then significant upside is possible. Rainmaker companies use Salesforce.
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Sales Talent Acquisition Model that uses a valid Sales Personality Test to hire the best sales people possible? If you are using a valid sales personality test to objectively identify top sales talent, then significant upside is possible.
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Activity-based and Results-based Management - Sales team members are held accountable for their activity AND results. If you believe in only "results-based management" - trusting sales people to get the results without activity-based accountability - then significant upside is possible.
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Sales Coaching Plan - Sales team members are coached based upon their unique needs. If you do not have active sales coaching plans that are specifically-designed for the unique needs of each sales team member - then significant upside is possible.
If you are considering the sale of your business or company, consider getting your sales team optimized in order to receive maximum dollar. If you are buying a company that does not have its sales team optimized - you have the potential for significant upside by doing what should have already been done.
Happy Monday Everyone!
Welcome to the latest edition of Human Capital Strategies! Each week, we give you insight into the 5 most interesting blog articles of the week. They will help you improve your most important asset, your people. This week, we feature posts which contain information on personal accountability, change management, leadership development, inside sales, and much more!
Enjoy, See you next week!
S. Anthony Iannarino, The Sales Blog: How to Deal with Haters - We all know them, the people who are never happy for you, and who are always trying to tear you down. In this post, S. Anthony describes some general characteristics of haters. He also explains how you can handle the haters so that you can go on and achieve greatness!
Marty Stanley, Thought Leaders Blog: Get out of B.E.D. and Alter Your Outcomes - We have all experienced horrible situations in the workplace one time or another. Bad communication, no personal accountability, and lack of responsibility can all play a part in creating a disaster. In this post Marty explains, “When a workplace is in B.E.D. (Blame, Excuses, and Denial), people often react impulsively with each misstep, and more mistakes happen.” Check out this post to help you get out of B.E.D. and get out your O.A.R. to start taking control of your outcomes!
Tim Sackett, The Tim Sackett Project: Want Change? Hire Pirates!
Who would have thought,
the key to change is as simple as hiring some pirates! In this post Tim explains, “pirates can operate when rules and safety nets breakdown.” Tim based this post off of the article An HR Lesson from Steve Jobs-If you want Change Agents, Hire Pirates! So what are you waiting for? Check out this blog and see if you can identify the pirates in your organization!
Mark Hunter, The Sales Hunter Blog: Debunking the Myth of “Inside Sales” - In this post, Mark discusses the change of inside sales. Mark states, “Customers have more options than ever before. It’s amazing how the Internet has given a level of knowledge and confidence to customers.” It is no longer as simple as locking the door and not allowing anyone to leave until the sale is made. Check out this post to see more of the changes that are happening to the world of inside sales and what you can do to succeed.
Tanveer Naseer, Tanveer Naseer’s Blog: 3 Leadership Lessons To Keep Your Organization From Running Aground - Every leader wants to achieve greatness. In this post Tanveer lists 3 ways to keep your organization from running aground. Tanveer mentions the Costa Concordia captain and his leadership mistakes, which literally made the Costa Condordia, run aground. Check out this great post to accomplish smooth sailing all the way to the leadership greatness you truly deserve.
