I heard this recently: Happiness in life doesn’t come from enjoyment. Happiness in life comes from victory.
Imposing self-discipline is a victory. We can celebrate it when we do it, and it produces other victories to celebrate, as well.
Archive for the ‘Dale Carnegie Training’ Category
Happiness
Monday, June 21st, 2010Why Do We Do It?
Friday, September 11th, 2009We are goal directed beings. We’re always accomplishing something. Which means there is always a reason for what we do. Getting a glass of water, getting drunk; talking about our faith, telling a lie; starting a business, selling a business, or any of millions of possible choices, there’s always a reason why.
Usually, we don’t examine that reason – we don’t even think about it. We don’t do things intentionally.
But, what if we always understood the intent behind our actions? Would we make better choices? I think so.
The implications could be life changing – couldn’t they?
That’s one reason why writing our goals and reviewing them regularly is so powerful. These two actions identify and reinforce our framework and helps guide the selection of what we do daily. Subconsciously, we make better choices. Better choices yield better results.
Writing and reviewing our goals creates a direction for us and frees us from the need to constantly examine the reason behind every action. So, I guess goal-setting is a life skill and a time management skill.
Franchise Players
Tuesday, August 11th, 2009I was talking with a friend of mine, today. While he might disavow this, he embodies EXCELLENCE. He executes well, is supremely competent, operates from impeccable integrity, is well-known and well-respected in his field, and – I say this with all sincerity - is amazingly humble.
In less than 9 months, he has had significant positive impact on the growth of his company’s bottom line – in a down economy.
He is a “franchise” player.
We love the ”franchise” player. They work longer and harder, need less attention, solve more problems, and raise the bar for everyone (who wants to play in their league).
The problem? “Franchise” players present a different leadership/management challenge. While we don’t have to discipline them, we do have to discipline ourselves.
Give them all they can handle, but not all we want them to handle.
Otherwise, we risk losing them – to our competition, or to burn out. In either case, our organization will be worse off.
Everyone’s Got a Story
Saturday, August 8th, 2009I was at a Dale Carnegie Course graduation this week.
One of the graduates was talking about what he gained from his twelve weeks in the program. His realization – everyone’s got a story.
We often (usually?) make judgements about others based solely upon what we see. It’s like looking through a keyhole in the front door of a mansion and claiming to know where everything – rooms, paintings, tapestries, furniture, silverware, closets, beds, linen, etc. – is inside. We can’t even see the entire front hallway.
Dale Carnegie said, “You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested you.” It’s amazing, when we strive to “Become genuinely interested in other people” (principle #4), they do become genuinely interesting to us.
The hard part is getting past our own initial judgement, so we can at least open the door and see the hallway.
Fool Me Once
Wednesday, August 5th, 2009China regulates internet access; Iran shuts down cellphone service. Why? Limiting (their) public(‘s) access to “unapproved” information helps maintain their regimes in power.
Lawyers respond to requests for information by inundating their opponents with mounds of paperwork. Buried deep is the exculpatory evidence needed by the defense.
Access to information can be limited by its absence or by its burial in overwhelming amounts of data.
So, we look for “filters” to help us make sense out of our daily data oceans and convert them to information we can use to make good decisions. These filters have tremendous power to influence our points of view.
Sales, marketing, news – they all help filter information for us – and influence our viewpoint. The key?
Understand everyone has an agenda. When we keep that in mind, we may be fooled once – not twice.
Manipulation -v- Motivation
Tuesday, August 4th, 2009In our management program, Leadership Training for Managers, we delve into the difference between manipulation and motivation.
One key difference – the results produced by engaging, long-term, in one behavior or the other. Manipulation, over time, leads to resentment and compliance; motivation leads to cooperation.
The challenge is to determine which we engage in most often. It’s made more difficult because the ultimate arbiter is the other person. All we have to go on is our own perspective.
So, how do you determine if you’re manipulating? Actually, it’s pretty simple.
If you think you’re manipulating, you are.
End Construction
Sunday, August 2nd, 2009Recently, I came to one of the many US highway areas “under construction.”
At 1:00 am, the maze of orange cones, orange barrels, flashing lights, concrete barriers and reflective tape was very noticeable in the pitch black. What was not noticeable? The entrance to the labyrinth. I’m sure the traffic engineer who designed this knew exactly how traffic was supposed to navigate through it. But, it’s not intuitively obvious at 75…. errrr at 65 miles per hour.
I slowed to a crawl, found the entrance, and breathed a sigh of relief when I finally saw the “end construction” sign several miles later.
What’s it like for your prospect navigating through your company’s sales process; or your customer navigating your customer service process; or maybe one of your employees navigating some new software or procedure?
Just because it’s obvious to you (the builder) doesn’t mean it’s obvious, friendly, or easy to anyone else. While we can rush right through it, they need to slow down, get their bearings and at least see the entrance.
When your sales, customer service, and human resource professionals try honestly to see things from the other person’s point of view, they’ll be more able to reassure, guide, and build trust with with your prospects, customers, and employees
Laughingstock no longer
Thursday, July 30th, 2009How does one ship go from a laughingstock to winning the Battle “E” in twelve months? (And then winning the next cycle.)
Imagine a car race between 14 Ford Mustangs. For eighteen months, they race around the same track. And, only one car wins.
The US Navy “race” is called the Battle Efficiency Award (the Battle “E”). For eighteen months, US Navy ships compete against other ships just like them. The ships are nearly identical; the officers and crews have similar levels of experience and expertise.
Each ship goes through a bunch of inspections (supply, gunnery, engineering, navigation, damage control, communication, etc.), in addition to assessments of operational readiness, responsiveness, administration and so on. At the end of eighteen months, a winner is selected based, in large measure, on these results.
One particular ship was the laughingstock of the waterfront. Not only had it recently failed a major engineering operational inspection, it took six separate attempts, over a two-week period, to successfully leave port for a five-day transit along the coast.
So how was it twelve months later, this ship won the Battle “E”?
Leadership – and it wasn’t the Commanding Officer. It was “TJ” – the new CHENG (CHief ENGineer).
He called the engineering department together and told us he knew how we could pass the re-inspection. He told us he’d successfully passed this inspection with six separate engineering departments. It would take hard work and long hours, and, if we did as instructed, we would pass.
He didn’t promise extra pay, extra time off, world peace, or the end of global warming. He treated us like adults – and we responded as adults.
Did we work hard? Oh, yeah.
Did we pass our next inspection? With one of the highest grades on record, at the time.
The momentum from that success carried on for the next three years.
When your organization is experiencing tough times, don’t be afraid to trust your people. Be honest with them. They’ll appreciate it, and you can expect they’ll work harder to ensure you (and they) succeed.
Do You Care Enough to Sell?
Friday, July 24th, 2009My friend was telling me about his first solo sales presentation. Coming back from it, my friend’s father (who owned the business my friend worked in) asked, “Well, how did it go?”
“It was great. He’s a really nice guy.”
“Did you get a check?” asked his father.
“No, but he’s going to do it.”
“So, is he enrolled?”
“No, but he’s thinking about it.”
“Do you think we can really help him?”
“Without a doubt. He really needs it.”
“What,” asked his father, “would you have told him if he were your brother?”
“I’d have told him: Get your **s in class, or I’ll drag you there.”
“So, are you telling me you don’t care as much about this guy because he’s not your brother?”
Sales people are “too nice” when we care more about ourselves (don’t want to lose this prospect/customer/sale; what if they don’t like me?) than we care about our customers or prospects.
Will being less “nice” win more sales for us? Probably. More importantly, it changes our self-perception from product peddler to sales professional.
So, do you really care enough to sell?
Bigger crops
Tuesday, July 21st, 2009Have you noticed that most fruits and vegetables have less flavor than they used to? Why do fruits and vegetables grown in your own garden taste so much better than store-bought? Why are fruits and vegetables eaten in other countries so much more tasty?
Farmers are paid by the bushel – by the size of their crop. They aren’t paid by the nutritional value. So, they work to increase the size of their land’s yield.
Replenishing just a few elements in the soil produces larger and larger yields – at least for a while. So, US farmers fertilize to replace only the needed nutrients – not all the nutrients. The result? Bigger crops of less tasty and less nutritious foods – from poorly nourished fields.
Eventually, the field burns out, stops producing, and has to lie fallow for a time before it can produce again – often a different crop.
How do you nourish your current field of customers?
Are you feeding them properly or just fertilizing them enough to get the largest crop before burning them out?