Increase your sales by targeting your ideal client

by Murray Smith | posted on April 9th, 2008 | Attract More Clients

When it comes to finding your ideal client, there is a basic principle that you must remember:Your prospects buy what you sell because they have specific needs or wants.Your job as a business owner is to know, understand and deliver the solutions for those needs and wants, which will differ depending on each specific business. Therefore, it’s critical that you know exactly what your prospect’s needs and wants are. This is the essence of marketing: to create a match between your buyer and your product or service.There are two primary categories of information that will help you with this determination.The first category is demographics. These are the characteristics that identify the ability, need and interest of a client to purchase your product or service. Demographics define those clients who need what you sell.The second category is psychographics. These are the factors that identify the motivation or reasons why someone wants to buy your product or service. Psychographics define those clients who want what you sell.As you identify your prospects’ wants and needs, based upon their demographic and psychographic characteristics, then compare this data with your own wants and needs, you will gain greater insight into your ideal client. And once you accurately target your ideal clients, you’ll spend less time and money to acquire them.To start, you must research your current clients – the ones you presently deal with day in and day out. Select at least three of your current clients to interview. Perform the demographic research by personally interviewing these clients either on the phone, or in person.

Business to consumer: If you sell to consumers, take time out of your routine to survey them. Find the answers to questions like these:

• Are your current clients mostly men, mostly women, or do they represent a 50/50 mix?
• Is there a certain age group or range that tends to buy from you? (If so, write it down as a range.)
• Are most of your typical clients single or married?
• Do you know their approximate income level?
• If not, do you know what zip code they live in? (Most zip codes contain homes or apartments that represent specific income ranges.)

Business to business: If you sell to businesses, interview at least three typical businesses you sell to. Find out the number of employees they have and their location to learn about their company culture and the number of subordinates you may have to speak with in order to get your sales message to the decision-maker.When you sell to other businesses, there’s a mindset to consider that may be different from your own. For example, you may need to position your product or service differently when selling to a New York-based business compared to a California-based business. In some cases, that difference can be day and night.Look for patternsWhen you have completed the interviews, compile all of the information to determine commonalities among your current clients. Collecting this information will help you find the traits they have in common, which will help in future marketing.Having all of this demographic information will help you create a mental picture of your current client. By identifying this client with demographic information, you can later begin your lead-generation efforts, and create a marketing message that is laser-targeted toward your ideal client. So take your time and be as specific as possible when completing these interviews.It will pay off when you have a steady stream of ideal clients, increased sales revenues, and more profits.

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Top 10 tips for getting noticed and getting more referrals

by OneCoach Team | posted on June 26th, 2008 | Marketing, books

Referrals are a great way to build your business, and there’s an art to generating more referrals. A previous guest on the OneCoach Expert Insight interview, Jill Lublin is CEO of the strategic consulting firm Promising Promotion, and author of the new book Get Noticed — Get Referrals, which shows you how to become more influential using an intuitive, people-oriented approach.Jill shared with us her top 10 tips for getting noticed, and here they are:  

• Be yourself. Build on your assets and your uniqueness because they are really what people want. Clients and customers want you, your special viewpoint or approach; your unique insights or touch, not a weak imitation of someone else. Don’t just be a copycat; find your own voice. Get noticed in your own way; in the manner most natural and comfortable to you. Examine the approaches that others have taken and then follow what feels natural for you. Trust yourself and your instincts.

• Work your business around your life, so it fits in your life, supports your life, and reflects you. Too many people do the reverse, they work their lives around their businesses and it frequently doesn’t work out well.

• Think of your clients, customers, referral sources, vendors, and suppliers as your partners and friends, as people who want to help you. Never forget that they’re people, not just business statistics, and that you cannot succeed without them.

• Master the art of listening because when you listen, you truly learn. If you listen, people will want to share their knowledge with you, be with you and help you. They will consider you their friend and go to great lengths to help you.

• Before you take on any project, make sure that you know exactly what the client or customer wants. Reduce your understanding to writing to eliminate doubt. It’s hard to satisfy people when you don’t know what they want.

• Be generous. Make giving a central part of your life. Work hard and give your clients and customers more than they expect. Give people your time. Always show your appreciation, thank and reward those who help. Praise others, and give them the credit and the spotlight.

• Surround yourself with the most interesting, active, and positive people. Hang around with experts, authorities, and people who are smarter and more accomplished than you. Find ways to meet them and be with them because they will open amazing new doors for you. They will support your efforts and add fullness and excitement to your life.

• Constantly strive for excellence and do everything in the best possible way. Build a reputation for continually doing outstanding work and everyone will want to be with and work with you. People who live excellence will find you.

• Always ask,”Can I do it better, more interestingly, or more inventively?” Challenge yourself to go beyond your prior accomplishments and to always surpass your best. Constantly look in new directions.

• Never compromise your integrity. Stand by your values, but don’t preach. Always be truthful, honest, fair, understanding, and humane. Deliver what you promised when you promised.Follow these suggestions and you will be noticed. The best people will notice and appreciate you — and you will enjoy a wonderful life.Check out Jill’s new book at www.GetNoticedBook.com. She’s offering bonus gifts from her friends and colleagues – speakers and authors who are the best of the best! 

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Building Confidence, Competence and Commitment
By: Rusty OWLS Senior Facilitator

Here are some thoughts and perceptions by some of the leading lights regarding the key elements that leaders and managers need to address. All represent possibilities and options so that you can choose whatever you feel is most appropriate for your situation.

Leadership

There are as many definitions of leadership as there are people writing about it. Marv Weisbord describes leadership as setting the purpose and direction for others, and getting them to move in that direction with competence and commitment. The Center for Creative Leadership identifies these challenges as central to the leadership role:

• Dealing with rapid and substantive changes
• Managing diversity of people and views
• Building the future through a shared sense of purpose

Warren Bennis says that leadership is about communicating a vision and the readiness to assume responsibility for  performance. Noel Tichy asserts that effective leaders create a vision, mobilize commitment and institutionalize change. In “The Transformational Leader,” he and Mary Anne Devanna believe that leaders:

• Identify selves as change agents
• Are courageous risk takers
• Believe in people
• Are value driven
• Are life-long learners

Management

Traditionally, management is the planning, organizing & controlling the implementation of “the work” that gets done in an organizational setting. Ellen Schall says that it is possible to both lead and manage, that is to provide a vision for the long term while dealing with the day-to-day activities. Effective managers set and help others achieve a standard of excellence. Managers generally, are trying to create the right environment, conditions and processes that bring out the best in people. They will establish or refine systems or procedures for performance measurement, feedback and reinforcement.

Managers need to have skill, and to encourage the skill in others, to diagnose what is going on, and to modify the direction and actions of their units toward goal accomplishment. In that sense, they need flexibility, adaptability and the capacity to act.

Teamwork

One definition of a team is a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to:

• a meaningful purpose
• clear performance goals
• a common working approach

Among the reasons why leaders and managers pay attention to building effective teams is that research has shown that teams outperform individuals by a wide margin, if  the task is a “team-like” task. In other words, you use a regular working group if results can be achieved through the sum of individual best performances. However, you employ a team if the task requires the real-time integration of multiple skills and perspectives.

Performance goals, and the struggle to attain them, are what makes a team. According to Katzenbach and Smith, high performance teams have a sense of individual and mutual accountability and are invested in each other’s growth and success. Teamwork builds a sense of community and belonging.  

Coaching

Highly effective managers know what performance is required and they prompt, model, encourage and help shape performance toward those results. Paul Brown states that good coaches emphasize positive expectations. They ask themselves if the person understands the goals, their duties, and the work processes to be used. Then they intervene at the right level, and provide direction and feedback. Along the way, coaches may need to encourage alternate behavior and to reward “approximations that come closer to the ideal”. They also provide latitude for the learner to find even more effective ways. They do give corrective feedback, but usually do so after building up a track record of  acknowledging achievements.

An effective coaching session will include a review of the goals, the purpose of the session, and joint agreement on a plan of action. It will maintain the self esteem of both the player and the coach.

Building Trust and Relationships

When you trust someone it means that you are willing to be count on them and to be vulnerable to their actions. Being willing to take this risk helps to build authentic relationships. The elements of trusting, authentic relationships are:

• Commitment – to more than just yourself.
• Familiarity – we know enough to give each other the benefit of the doubt.
• Responsibility – we trust people who are willing to take personal responsibility for their actions.
• Integrity – we trust people who are honest and willing to be themselves.
• Consistency – it is easier to build a strong relationship if there is some predictability of behavior.
• Forgiveness & Reconciliation – our ability to forgive and be forgiven is important.

One definition of trust (from Michael Annison) is the intuitive confidence and sense of comfort that comes from the belief that we can rely on a person (or organization) without thinking about it. Some ways to help build trusting relationships are:

• Develop rapport – by taking a genuine interest in the other(s).
• Provide information – share relevant data and/or opinions.
• Support – demonstrated by acceptance of the other person, independent of whether or not you feel the same way they do. It helps to listen.

Strategic Communications

“Communications creates meaning for people. It’s the only way any  group, small or large, can become aligned behind the overarching goals of an organization.”

 –Warren Bennis and Burt Nanus.

A communications plan/strategy is a critical component of any implementation of strategic direction. It requires addressing four key questions in a disciplined approach:

What is the message. People need to know where we are heading and what is expected of them, in terms of tasks. Data is critical to allow effective participation in planning and implementation.

Who is involved. The who may depend on structures or task groups created. Involving future key players early may be an effective strategy since we know that people support what they help create. The leader may want to consider how to bring along other units or stakeholders.

When do they need to know. Regularity and frequency of communications should be planned to support strategy. Communications can be tailored to reach specific groups when it is important to build buy-in, and to signal actions required.

How to get understanding. Two-way communications is critical if strategic change is involved. It allows feedback which may be more important than feeding. Elements of communications strategy may include a variety of face-to-face forums, cross-functional teams, retreats, cascading events and prototyping or piloting.

Vision

A vision is a clearly articulated, results-oriented picture of a possible ideal future one intends to create. It is a picture of the whole, which illustrates the distinctive meaning, purpose and values behind the work and why one does it. Vision statements facilitate planning and provide a public document. Good ones are oriented towards the future and emphasize distinctiveness.

Creating a vision forces us to take a stand on our preferred future. Effective leaders provide a vision that channels our deepest values into the workplace and becomes a word picture of how we want these values to be lived out in the unit. We give leadership when we help create a vision that positions our organization in relation to our customers and to our colleagues.

It may be that the process of visioning is as important as the outcome. When more are involved, it facilitates alignment, focus and direction. The visioning process can enroll and inspire others, and serve as an on-going context and foundation for decisions.

Planning

Planning includes setting objectives, outlining procedures and assigning responsibility. Plans should lead toward the organization’s overall strategies and objectives and fit within its mission and values. Effective plans identify the individual components or steps necessary to reach the objectives and place them in proper sequence. The planning process ideally deals with resources (people, skills, equipment, materials, money).

What you would like to do, coupled with strategic self-concept yields strategic intent. In some way this is more helpful for people to know than all the plan specifics. When we are clear on strategic intent, we can make on-the-spot decisions using this as a guide. Rather than fixating, the plan should allow the organization to adapt and break out of old paradigms.

Implementing

Managers are good at planning and direction setting but fail to get “beyond their best intentions” according to Billie Alban. There are some specific issues and endeavors which can load actions for success. Among them are:

• Select and involve future key players – involving people early helps build their ownership and commitment.
• Frame for public consumption – aspects of the plan that appeal to the group addressed can be stressed. Grab the stakeholders where they live.
• Develop community – show how the implementation benefits many and brings people together under a common purpose.
• Enlist informal leaders – people enjoy being consulted and can be influential in molding acceptance and action.
• Care and feeding of the boss – involve the chief, get ideas, get help in removing roadblocks. Bosses don’t like to be surprised, and often do like to help.
• Put a stake in the ground – be willing to take personal responsibility and to get others equally committed.

Responsibility and Accountability

In high performance organizations many individuals are willing to hold themselves accountable for performance, rather than blaming others if things go awry. Linda Gallindo defines personal responsibility as a “before the fact” mindset of personal ownership and commitment to the result. She also defines personal accountability as a personal willingness “after the fact” to answer for outcomes produced.

Engendering this type of  response in our people separates transformative leaders and managers from the pack. One approach is to get people to R.I.S.K. :

• Realize that my results are the consequences of my actions.
• If it is to be, it is up to me.
• Step out of my comfort zone.
• Keep focused.

When people take ownership they behave differently. They let go of complacency and scape-goating and take action and risk to achieve results. In order to help others become accountable, leaders can state objectives clearly, ensure measurement of results, and consistently model their own accountability.

Creative Problem Solving

Groups can be facilitated in such a way that their collective brainpower far exceeds the sum of individual contributions. In order for this to happen, all ideas must be acceptable, censorship is not allowed, and ideas are captured for later refinement and analysis. In order to develop creative alternatives, we can:

• agree on a process that invites participation and receptivity.
• clarify the mission or goal.
• brainstorm alternatives.
• identify promising possibilities and build momentum for them.
• overcome concerns and make them actionable.
• identify next steps and responsibilities.

Effective group problem solving usually includes defining the problem, getting ideas and information, testing ideas, decision making, developing and implementing an action plan, and feedback and measurement.

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You’ve branded the organization, now what about you?
By: James M. Grossman

Time was, branding an organization meant gathering the honchos around the conference room table and coming to grips with whether to slap the company logo on the front or back of the corporate tri-fold brochure.

Today, to most organizations, branding means much more. The process of branding has grown to involve the entire presence of an organization in the lives of its customers, prospects, employees and public at large. Branding addresses the question of how an organization’s mission is lived out in every part of the business. How every activity, feature, policy and decision propels the organization forward, along its path to achieving that mission. Or, how it hinders that progress.

While branding is fast emerging as the activity that drives all marketing activities, there is still one commonly held fallacy that persists. This fallacy is what is known in some circles as the “purple cow theory.” This is the idea that branding is first and foremost about standing out in the crowd.

That isn’t entirely true. Successful branding is a matter of expressing the core of the organization (or, as we shall soon see, the individual) in ways that are consistent, impeccable and uniquely reflective of that core. Standing out happens as a result of that attention to authentic self-expression, not the other way around.

Another fact of branding that is also too often overlooked is that the process not only applies to organizations but also to individuals. I repeat, whether you’re a CEO, a middle manager or just starting out in a career, personal branding should be an activity that is an important part of every workday.

So, the question comes, what have you done— what are you doing— to brand yourself. You are, after all, as much of a market entity as the organization for which you now work.

1) Have you formulated a mission, a focus for your career? Identified who you are, what you stand for and how your career mission fits with your life purpose? If so, is your mission based on selling yourself (appealing to what you think might “get you ahead”) or, is it authentic to who you are?

2) Have you established a clear-cut identity for yourself within your organization and within your field? Or, are you spreading yourself thin by trying to be all things to all people? Are the ways you prepare for and conduct your workday, the ways you interact with all people, the earmarks of your work, consistent with your identity?

3) Do you have an active program of self-publicity that centers not on blowing your own horn or on trying to look better than the other person but on establishing yourself as the “go-to” person in your area of expertise? Do you spread the word through contributions to your organization’s newsletters? Submitting articles to trade publications? Writing white papers for appropriate committees that promote your area or industry more than yourself?

4) Most important, are you clear on who you’re working for?

This is the most important step you can take on the road to branding yourself. By reframing who you are working for, you can dramatically change the way you interact at every level.

The normal answer is that we are working for our employer. That needs to change. Working for an employer leads to viewing that organization as a kind of a parent. We perform certain tasks and, in return, come to expect certain things. We expect to be “taken care of.” We expect fairness, positive rewards for positive contributions. Maybe a holiday allowance (errr, bonus) and to use the car once in a while. We show up to work when the policy manual says we have to. We go to lunch when the bell rings and return when it chimes again. At the appointed hours, we leave the office and roll home, repeating the process day after day. Year after year.

When we don’t get what we’ve convinced ourselves is our due, we either perform acts of covert, overt or passive-aggressive sabotage, waste time and energy complaining to and with other “deprived” employees. Or, we dust off our resume, go looking for another parent and repeat the whole mess over and over again.

But, one little reframing of how we view our employee-employer role can change all that. Here’s the secret: stop thinking of the organization you work for as you employer and start thinking of it as a client.

That opens the door to a successful program of self-branding. It frees us to deliver for our client when and how best suits our “brand.” Free time and lunches can be spent finding ways to hone and sharpen our brand. To strengthen that brand in our present situation and toward our future markets.

Once we convince ourselves that we are, after all, working for ourselves, we can begin to apply the marketing and branding fundamentals of successful business to our own lives.

Once you’ve made that world-view leap, take the next step and either hire yourself a personal branding consultant or pick up some branding and marketing books (Al Reis, Jack Trout, Guy Kawasaki, Jay Conrad Levinson are some of the worthwhile authors) and begin applying the principles to your own career and life. You’ll find you’re on the way to not only more satisfying and productive workdays, but to a more fulfilling and self-satisfying career, as well.

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A few thoughts about coaching
By: Jennifer, Senior OWLS Consultant

Although there are likely as many approaches to coaching as there are coaches, it is fairly safe to sum up this rapidly growing field in this way: coaching is not therapy, counseling or a treatment of any sort. These methods depend on the existence of a ‘problem’ upon which a focus is then placed. Not that we don’t all have our issues; certain fear-based assumptions which disrupt the natural flow and inevitable change that is Life. In actuality, our lives are held hostage by that which we fear, real or imagined, looming or dormant. Ironically, in order to know what you fear most, it helps to get in touch with what you want most. I mean, what do you really want?? Strange as it may sound, this is not always the easiest of questions to answer. Coaching, in general, is about deep listening which allows two things to happen: the coach is able to respond by asking the right questions at the right time and subsequently offer a different perspective from which new insight can be gained.  More specifically, ontological coaching tunes into language, emotions and the body as an inter-woven system. It is concerned with the nature of Being itself. Wellness is defined by How You Are while you are doing whatever you are doing. 

Transformational coaching can be done individually or in groups; each offering distinctly valuable time. While one-on-one coaching provides private, undivided attention, group coaching fosters a connection with others and taps into a wider circle of collective wisdom. Either way, the first step is to identify the desired outcome of the coaching relationship. We then begin to learn how to use emotions as tools and uncover self-limiting patterns of behavior (themes), usually in relation to others, which do not serve you well.  If left unchecked and unnoticed, our old, ingrained habits will create a future based in and on our past. As the wizard explains to Dorothy in Oz, “If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always gotten”. We will also rediscover your true nature, your Core, which is you at your best.

Personal mastery is about building self-awareness into behavioral change thereby empowering you, as the artist, to create a life by design, not by default. Coaching is about creating a sacred space in which to embark on this journey into yourself, a place to be heard, understood and re-discover Who You Really Are. You, the real you, is nothing more or less than the awareness in which the content (story) of your life unfolds. It is only when we begin to believe that we are the thoughts we think (or not), the title we hold (or not), how we look (or not), the things we have (or not) or what we’ve done (or not) that the uncertainty sets in. In this place of uncertainty, doubt and fear we default to ‘ways of being’ that once served as coping mechanisms to help us adapt to what went on in our life as a child.

We all long for authentic conversation, to recognize ourselves in others through connection and return home to our Core only to realize we never left. The coaching I prefer is based on these guiding principles:

            ~you are whole and complete

            ~every answer to every problem or question lies within you, right now

            ~there is only Now

            ~suffering is a mental construct that arises from resistance to ‘what is’

            ~true freedom is acknowledging the power within to choose your response to

              any event, situation or circumstance

            ~the meaning in life is that which you assign to it

            ~there is enough for everyone

            ~we are all connected to each other and the Source from which we came

My intention is not to give you answers or tell you what to do. I am here to act as a mirror to help you recognize what you already know, but have forgotten. I am merely your guide along the journey into yourself. I look forward to our travels together….

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Using Personality Tools in the Workplace By:
Robin Weeks, Senior OWLS Consultant

It is common in the workplace today for companies to offer to their employees opportunities to take behavioral or personality assessments.  The choice of which tool to use can be mind boggling.  Do you choose one that tells you what color you are?  Do you prefer to know what letter of the alphabet identifies your personality or behavior?   Do you fall back on the grand daddy of tools the Meyers Briggs Type Indicator?  Some are quick and easy, others provide labels, and some are just fun.  You will need to decide if a behavioral or personality tool is what you need.

A good personality tool can provide insight into both behavior and personality.  “Personality is the pattern of behavior by which we are recognized.” (Howard & Howard, “The Owner’s Manual for Personality at Work”, 2001, p. 190).  While our behaviors are influenced by our personality we have the ability to alter or change behaviors but not our personality.   If we attempt to change our personality too much it causes psychological and physical stress on us.  The Workplace Big Five Profile offers an in-depth understanding of how one’s personality impacts their performance, productivity and job satisfaction, how we successfully interact with our colleagues and managers, and how we respond to our work environment.

The Workplace Big Five Profile offers five super traits each with 4-6 sub-traits.  This comprehensive profile offers participants a greater understanding of how their personalities are affected by aspects of both learned and inherited traits.  “Personality, then, is the result of what we’re born with after it’s been mingled with what the world has brought our way.” (Howard & Howard, p.192).  This tool has years of validation statistics and is continually being refined.  In addition to the profile participants are provided with a job competency report that estimates their ability to perform based on their personality infrastructure.  This addition to the profile is used for professional development, job matching, and 360 reviews.

“As the economy tightens and employers focus on a lean workforce and on workplace security, the experts say, the employment tests could take on added value.”  (Steve Bates,  Human Resource Magazine, Feb. 2002, online).  Should you decide that an assessment would be of benefit to your staff, research carefully the purpose of the tool, outcomes you can expect from it, is the administrator certified in interpreting results, is it validated, is it accepted by the American Psychological Association and is it accurate?   Gaining an understanding of what use the information will serve can be a good guideline for choosing the tool.  Hiring and keeping the best employees is every company’s greatest asset.  Using personality profiles in your toolbox is one way to do that.

You can learn more about the Workplace Big Five Profile and how to develop your leaders and teams on our website.  Download the pdf brochure http://www.teambuildingprograms.com/pdf/WorkPlaceBigFive.pdf or call Robin Weeks for more information 866-535-OWLS (6957).

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The worst business tip I’ve ever heard.(Or: Why the thing that nearly drove me off the road could mean a bigger disaster for your business) 
By: James M. Grossman 

I woke up to the fact that I was riding the shoulder of the road when my truck’s wheels started kicking up dirt. Now, usually when this happens it means I’m dodging deer. But, this time there were no mulies in sight. This time, my distraction was driven by a voice coming out of my radio.

The AM station was broadcasting a commercial sponsored by one of our local business supply stores. Instead of telling me what was on sale, the ad was giving me business tips. They should have stuck to pitching products. The spot managed to cram some of the worst business advice I’d ever heard, and some of the most common business problems, into a thirty-second message.

“Here’s how,” the voice told me, “to create continuous improvement in your business.” Now, I didn’t actually record the commercial but my paraphrasing runs pretty dead-on to what was said. The voice told me there were four simple steps to continuous improvement. First, figure out the best way to do something. Second, make sure everyone— that’s everyone— doing the work is doing it in exactly the same way. Third, ask for suggestions. Fourth, do the process again.

This process for “continuous improvement” is actually one of the most foolproof recipes for disaster I’ve ever heard.

The surest way I know to sabotage productivity and alienate staff is to send down a change decree from above without drawing the solutions from the people actually involved.

Recently, I worked with an organization that demonstrates my point. The organization brought in a new department head. The fellow spent ten to 20 minutes with members of the department under the guise of getting to know them. Mostly, the conversation centered on small talk but he did ask that they tell him briefly about what they did on the job. After those “input” sessions, the boss closed himself behind his office door and went to work reorganizing the department. New positions. New responsibilities. New lines of reporting and supervision. He had “figured out the best way” to do everything.

He then sprung his plan on the staff. During his presentation, the boss admitted that he didn’t really understand what all his people actually did but he was sure that everyone would be pleased with the decisions he’d made.  He couldn’t fathom why people responded with uncomfortable silence, confusion and even covert hostility. When they did, he became defensive and issued carved-in-stone decrees about the way things were going to be.

If you really want continuous improvement, then continuously involve the people who do the work in that improvement process. Use an Open Space Technology or other collaborating process to identify areas people care about. Areas people are excited about and can become passionate about improving. Then, turn those people loose to come up with create systems and solutions. Respect their experience, listen deeply to their input and invite their ingenuity.

The second ingredient in this recipe for disaster is making sure everyone does things the exact same way. If the goal is to get a ball on top of the roof, throwing it might be great if you have a staff full of Roger Clemens’. But, if there’s a Venus de Milo on board, booting or heading the ball would no doubt be a better solution. Responsibility without authority never works. If your people are responsible for completing a task or reaching a goal, they also need the authority to use their individual strengths and best resources to get the job done.

There’s a fable about a couple of friends who just happened to be a fox and a crane. The fox invited the crane to dinner. The dinner was thin soup served in shallow platters. The fox, of course, easily lapped up the soup but the crane had a long bill that allowed no lapping, so she went home hungry. A few weeks later, the crane invited the fox to dinner. This time, the soup showed up in tall, narrow-necked vases. You can guess who ate and who went home hungry this time.

People have different personalities and different skills. There is rarely, probably never, a one right, best way to a goal. Appreciating and allowing those differences to work for your business will only create a stronger organization. An organization with people who are invested in success and make possible a culture where continuous improvement has a shot at actually happening.

Empowering people is critical to creating that climate of continuous improvement. What too many managers either don’t realize or ignore is that the first step in empowering people is deconstructing the practices, policies and attitudes that created the de-powerment in the first place. Organizational leaders must understand and set aside our insecurities, our need to always be the guy or gal with the answers and the solutions. Those answers and solutions are all around us, within the people we work with every day. Our job is to help them bring it out, bring it to the job and let it work for the success of our organizations.

There’s really no need to talk about steps three and four of the “continuous improvement” tips I heard over the radio. If you implement steps one and two, I’m pretty sure you won’t have to worry about anyone offering constructive suggestions. Oh sure, your people will have ideas about what you can do with your process, but at this point you won’t want to hear them.

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Why do we behave the way we do?
By: Robin, Senior OWLS Facilitator and Program Designer

Have you ever wondered how come your colleague can’t stop talking or why your boss stays behind closed doors?  Do you not seem to be communicating with someone in your office?  Do you always seem to be at odds with a colleague?  Or, ever wonder how someone whose desk is in a state of chaos gets anything done?  Some of the answers for these behaviors come from the most basic of things, our personality.  The combination of temperament and behavior is what makes us who we are.  The inability to overcome these challenges can impede our performance, productivity, communication skills and development.  Understanding the makeup of our personality can help us to utilize our strengths and develop strategies for managing differences to both improve performance and head off our challenges.

There are many assessment tools in the marketplace today.  Some are primarily behavior focused while others are personality identifiers.  Some of the trendier tools provide the participant with a color or a name.  Many of these offer some basic level of insight and can create some self-awareness but most leave the participant with a label and few strategies for professional and personal development.  It then becomes easy to refer to that label as the excuse for behaviors.

I have taken many of these assessments over the years and find that they all offer up much the same information in different formats.  I was tired of the labels and wanted to find a tool that would help me and my clients understand the depth of personality and how to use that information to develop and to work more effectively with others.  Several years ago I learned of the Five Factor Model and the Big Five personality tool.   The history of this tool began with research in 1936 around the terms and words used to describe personality.  By the 1980’s a group of “five synonym clusters appear to account for the majority of differences between individual personalities.” (Howard & Howard, 2001,  p 29, Personality at Work).  The long years of research were due to the sorting process which was speeded up with the computer.  The more validated a tool is by research the more reliable will be its results

What makes this tool different? 

• It is psychologically endorsed because of its reliability, validity, norms, global applications, and descriptive power (Howard & Howard, 2001, p. 32, Personality at Work).  The Big Five offers in depths look at the primary traits NEAOC and sub-traits that make up the richness of who we are. 
• It offers individuals, teams, leaders, and group’s insight and greater understanding into why they behave and interact the way in which they do and offers strategies for enhancing those interactions as well as performance.
• The Big Five is specifically designed with questions and words approved in the workplace.  
• Its uses are for team building, professional development, coaching, job selection and succession planning, 360 feedback and job structuring.

The benefits of using the Big Five are comprehensive. 

• Utilizing the tool as a means of helping a team to head off potential areas of conflict
• Coaching individuals to higher levels of performance based on their strengths
• Reducing attrition by making the tool a part of selection criteria or succession planning.
• Improve communication skills
• Job fit and development
• Team selection to optimize skills and strengths
• Career development

We are often required to work effectively and communicate with colleagues that don’t necessarily share our point of view, our manner of thinking, learning or communicating.  The inability to do this can create stress and tension, both non-productive to accomplishing work.  I recently worked with a group who were challenged by some dysfunctions of other groups with whom they had to interact.  The dilemma was that this group knew the other interactions probably would not change but that they could gain insight and knowledge into how they could develop their own skills to better communicate with the other groups. 

Two Case Studies:

I put together a 1.5 day workshop with highly interactive sessions to help them to first; understand their personalities in the workplace and second; to develop strategies for coping and better communicating with the differences they were encountering.  By gaining insight into how they typically respond to situations in the workplace and then role playing various scenarios with colleagues we worked together to develop strategies to reduce the tension associated with not communicating well and learning to flex to a different behavior from their own.  With some coaching around their own personality traits and some exercises in role-playing to different types they were able to develop strategies to overcome the differences and thus to gain greater control over their interactions.  We were also able, by understanding the traits, to identify the key traits of the individuals with whom there was conflict.  Thus, the participants were able to use this information to reduce the tensions of those conflicts.

Another group I worked with was a newly formed leadership team.  The leader of this team wanted to see how they could capitalize on the strengths of the individuals and to look at the overall makeup of the team.  Through a workshop we discovered where the team needed to pay close attention to “group think” because of their similarities and where the individuals with different scores often were overlooked.  In addition to the Big Five, each team member was given a job competency report.  Their primary job responsibilities were provided and the Big Five runs an estimated report on competency fit based on research of optimal personality infrastructure to perform that competency.  I then provided coaching to each individual utilizing the Human Resource Optimization tool developed by the Big Five to develop, support, compensate or work around depending on the “fit”.  This provided them with professional development strategies for improving performance and meeting some longer range goals.

In summary, we are our personalities.  Creating a higher level of self awareness about the how’s and why’s of our behavior augments our emotional intelligence, our ability to be a part of a team, and our leadership.

So, what about that person with the chaotic desk?  Well, they are probably a low scorer on the C or Conscientious spectrum.  This does not mean they cannot get things done, they just don’t see organization as important.  We can modify our traits (and do) to some degree in the workplace but cannot change.  The Big Five is a tool with a depth of uses and information to enhance workplace development and job fit.

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Group Dynamics and Leadership

By: Meg, OWLS Senior Facilitator

Any group of people that interact together go through a process in their development to becoming a group that works well together. It is beneficial for leaders to have an understanding of group dynamics. With a solid understanding of group dynamics a good leader will have a better understanding of how his or her team is progressing and what he or she can do to facilitate positive outcomes.

According to Gerald Corey (1995), there are typically two types of groups, open and closed. Closed groups are limited to specific people. No other people are introduced to the workings of the group until the completion of the project. Open groups allow different people to participate in the group at different times. The people who began and end the project may be different, although some members are typically present for the entire process. Group development moves quicker in closed groups then open groups. In closed groups the individuals identify their roles within the group and are able to develop them quicker then when new people are introduced. The introduction of new people can create competition for certain roles, thus distracting the group from its goals. Also, in closed groups trust is established quicker as the individuals get to know each others strengths and weakness.

Most scholars of group dynamics acknowledge distinctive changes in group process. Corey (1995) uses a four-stage model: An Initial Stage, a Transition Stage, a Working Stage, and Final Stage.

The Initial Stage is one of orientation and exploration. Group members identify expectations and develop goals, both personally and as outcomes for the group. Typically people experience feelings of varying degrees of anxiety and concern about how they will fit into the group and if they will be socially accepted into this specific group of people. The leader’s role is to provide guidance by identifying specific goals and expectations of members, keeping in mind that inclusion and identity are going to be important in developing trust and a cohesion. A leader can best do this by role modeling trust in the individuals, the group, and him or her self. The leader must demonstrate the ability to listen to individual’s concerns and acknowledge thoughts and feelings.

The Transition stage has been described as the point where members, “struggle for power and establishment of a pecking order” (Yalom, 1985). At this stage there are often feelings of competition, rivalry, and division of responsibility. Some people will be uncomfortable with the conflict, which is typical of this stage. It is the leader’s job to remember that conflict is an opportunity for growth and the development of trust and integrity. The leader should help maintain good communication between members and encourage them to work out conflicts professionally and respectfully. The leader’s job is to provide balance and support. The Transition stage is the most uncomfortable stage, but also the most important, as it prepares the group for the next stage which is were productivity flourishes.

The working stage is one of cohesion and productivity. This stage is action oriented and the stage where the tasks are completed and goals are reached. There is a feeling of solidarity and cohesion. Roles have been established and members know what to expect from each other and themselves. The leader’s main role, at this point, is to provide constructive feedback and support as goals are met.

The Final Stage is defined by consolidation and termination. Goals have been met and the process has been completed. The leader should help members identify strengths and encourage them to use them in future requirements.

The amount of time a group takes to move through the stages varies on the group and the individuals in the group. Ideally, a leader wants a group to move quickly through the first two stages so that they can get to the working stage, where most productivity takes place. When a group has an experience together it enhances cohesion and develops trust. For example, in the movie, Little Miss Sunshine, the dysfunctional family takes a trip together. They have some adventures, or misadventures, that force them to work together. Each individual’s strengths are used to support one another and by the end of the movie they are functioning much more like a healthy family.

Experiences that create cohesion help groups move through the stages more quickly. Team buildings that challenge a group outside of their typical environment can accelerate the rate of group dynamics. Generally, in a well-facilitated team building, individual’s strengths are allowed to surface. Groups develop trust and move into the working stage rather quickly. In the final stage the facilitator helps the group identify what they’ve learned and how they can apply it to their working environments. Team buildings help leaders understand their role better, as well as the roles of each group member.

In conclusion, there are stages that a group passes through, as they become a working group. A basic understanding of group development increases a leader’s ability to lead a group in a manner that allows the group to function at it’s highest potential.

Corey, G. (1995). The Theory and Practice of Group Counseling 4^th Edition.

Yalom, I.D. (1985). The Theory and Practice of Group Psychotherapy. New York: HarperCollins Pub.

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