InnerActive Consulting – Insights » 2009

Workplace Motivators Tell the “WHY” We Do Things

Using assessments in business is still important since it is the only true source for objectivity in understanding people. Since people are the key source for performance, productivity and results, it is important to know “WHY” each person does the things they do.

Some people believe they only need a behavioral assessment to answer all the questions on people issues. My answer to this – DISC only gives you the “HOW” a person does things. Since it is behavioral based the broadcast media that people use to communicate, listen, walk, talk, etc.

Workplace Motivators on the other hand get into the reasons “WHY” a person makes decisions the way they do. It answers the question about what they value and what they devalue – showing the sources of passion or indifference.

Identifying the source of passion or what is valued will tell a manager why a person prefers a certain type of job or why they make decisions or what positions they prefer due to the rewards of a particular position.

An example of these Workplace Motivator showing high performance can be traced to outside sales positions. In research of top performers in sales in the United States and Europe, we found that 93% of the top performers in the US and Europe had a certain Workplace Motivator as the number one or number two driver. This driver was the need to get a return on everything they did. It sounds logical, yet, every day sales people are hired who do not possess a passion for a return on everything they do. This are the same people who later de-hired by their sales managers due to a lack of results!

What are you doing in the hiring process or the evaluation of performance process that involves Workplace Motivators? If the answer is nothing, then you are risking your job. Excellent executives understand the value of objectivity in decision making and understanding what makes people tick. People skills is the main issue for success or lack of success. Assessments are the key component for finding the objectivity needed in a subjective area – such as people.

Want to know more about Workplace Motivators? First, go to our assessment site and read about Workplace Motivators and then download a sample report to review what is identified. Now one thing about a sample, it will not be as meaningful since it is not about you or someone you know. But it will provide a glimpse into the information format.

Next contact or call me to discuss how to use Workplace Motivators in your group, team, or organization. You will benefit in several ways using these assessment tools and we need to discuss exactly how they can help you. Call me at 901-757-4434 and we can discuss how to make you more productive and effective with people skills.

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Posted by Voss Graham on June 16, 2009 at 5:30 am under Using Assessments.
Tags: Evaluate Talent, Evalutating, Getting a Return on Everything, hiring and selection, Rewards and Culture issues for business, Top Performers, Workplace Motivators
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DISC tells You the “How” People Do Things

So, you want to know “how” a person communicates, talks, walks, listens, deals with people, handles processes and rules, makes decisions, goes after goals and problems? Then you need to look at a DISC assessment to answer the question.

DISC assessments answer these questions and more. The tool tells you if a person is feeling minor or major stress. It can tell you when a person is trying to be “all things to all people” and again feeling unusual stress in the process.

If you are looking for a sample of a DISC report and what it covers, go to our assessment site (which explains all the assessments we offer and what they will do for you) and download a sample “behavioral” report. They come in different formats – one for executives, managers & staff, sales, customer service, team building and even time management.

Someone asked me, “Is the DISC report a personality test?” My answer was “no.” The reason for this answer is the DISC reports have no psychology involved in the assessment. Only behavior is recorded or the behavioral tendencies of an individual. Yet, behavior is the most dominant factor since it is what everyone sees or hears. Behavioral traits are on display for everyone to see and “judge.”

I prefer the power and insight of the DISC reports because it is easily validated by the person who takes the assessment and everyone who interacts with this person. However, one major issues comes up between people. When people or staff are unaware of the types of behavioral style, they tend to judge others based upon their “own style preferences.” This can create natural conflict and misunderstanding of actions or intent.

85% of conflict in organizations can be linked to different behavioral style. This has been our experience working in the corporate arena.

People need to understand the power of behavioral style and how it influences our actions and our communication effectiveness with others. Our number one workshop is based upon helping people understand how behavioral tendencies influence our actions and results. Check out our number one workshop: Effective Communication for Results.

If you are interested in this assessment and the impact it provides an organization, please contact me at 901-757-4434. We can discuss how it can help you and your organization or team. Call now and get more effectiveness and productivity in your group, team or organization.

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Posted by Voss Graham on June 15, 2009 at 5:27 am under Using Assessments.
Tags: Behavioral Styles, Conflict Resolution, DISC, Effective communication skills, Improving People Skills, Using Assessments
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What’s Your Preference – Goals or Problems?

While coaching a client I was intrigued by the fact that every time I asked about my client’s goals for the coming year, the client would change the subject and not answer my question. This continued for several weeks, until I discover the answer – he preferred problems over goals.

After studying this topic in depth I learned that people fall into one of two camps: 1. Goal oriented or 2. Problem oriented.

Okay, I know some of you have heard the motivational speakers jump up and down talking about goal setting is the master key to success. You need to write and rewrite your goals every day to make certain the goals are top of mind and thus get achieved.

Well, the truth is, only half the population are true goal seekers. The other half are problem solvers. In fact, the really intense problem solvers hate to discuss goals due to their disbelief that goals are achievable or even necessary in some cases. Continue reading ‘What’s Your Preference – Goals or Problems?’ »

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Posted by Voss Graham on June 12, 2009 at 5:28 am under Coaching.
Tags: Coaching, Creating a High Performance Culture, Goal oriented, Great Leadership, Problem Solvers
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Is It Time to Revisit the Sales Basics?

This question is for everyone that is responsible for generating revenue and sales for your company.

“Is It Time to Revisit the Sales Basics?”

I was reviewing a basic sales seminar workbook that I was preparing for placing on a website for Internet based or online training purposes. Yet, as I continued to review each module of the seminar, I realized the information is very useful in today’s environment. With the changing of attitudes, smaller budgets (with believability factors being strong) and less relationship based selling in the marketplace, maybe it’s time to revisit the basics of sales training.

The really good basic sales training processes include a balance of inner game material for the mental side of selling with an excellent collection of outer game techniques. Some of the key components I picked up during this quick review was the amount of practice time needed to prepare for natural and smooth delivery of information to customers.

Additional nuggets from this review includes doing basic research into why customers buy from you? What are the true reasons that customers value your products or services? A very important issue was “what is an ideal customer?” This is a critical factor to think about as we all look for more business. If we know – I mean truly know – what an ideal customers looks and sounds like, then we could actively target prospects who have the same or similar qualities.

The last nugget came from a quote in the workbook from Vince Lombardi “Perfect Practice makes for Perfect Plays in a Game.” Now, I’m not really big on the word “perfect,” yet, I understand the more you practice, get it right, the simpler it becomes in front of others. We need to review the basics and the fundamentals on a regular basis to remain sharp. Just like the great athletes in any sport take the time to practice fundamentals during the off season, sales people need to practice with others before getting in front of customers and prospects.

Watch for a coming announcement of our basic sales training online. It will cover all the basics and get anyone ready to sell more – even in today’s economic times.

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Posted by Voss Graham on June 11, 2009 at 5:32 am under Sales.
Tags: Basics of Selling, fundamentals of selling, ideal customer profile, Practice, Vince Lombardi quote
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Provocative or Bold, it’s About Taking a Chance

I’ve been reading a lot about different selling systems or processes lately and several are acting like they have invented some new super effective selling process! Well, having been around good to great sales people for the past twenty years it is not that revolutionary.

The keys to their success are the same keys the best sales people have been using for years. It’s all about being somewhat bold, aggressive or provocative AND TAKING A RISK. In today’s environment, too many people are playing everything safe and risk free.

When I was learning about finance in college, one thing was made perfectly clear. No risk equals little gain or profit. Too much risk equals major loss potential. So, the right thing is to make a calculated or balanced decision – take some risk (or chance) and get a higher return.

Again, this is elementary finance, yet, it can be applied to the world of selling and have serious meaning. In this economic downturn, no one has a normal budget to operate, in fact, some budgets have disappeared. Decisions – if made at all – are going higher in the organization and are heavily influenced by the financial “bean-counter” types.

So what does this mean for today’s sales person? It means you can not continue to play safe and keep going to your friends in the customer or prospect organizations. You can no longer afford to maintain a “normal” course of action and take little or no risk. Unless of course you are truly independently wealthy and have played the options market very effectively during the downturn in the market. But wait! Doesn’t that mean you are comfortable with taking risks and getting higher returns!

It is time to start asking difficult or hard questions of higher level decision makers. These questions can be effectively worded so it is not taken personally by the executive – yet, the questions must be bold and force thought. Thought is the key for the sales person. A thinking decision maker is not on automatic pilot with knee jerk responses – we have no budget for this, let me talk to others, we are currently satisfied with our supplier, vendor, provider.

As a sales person, it is time to think about what is happening in your customer or prospect’s business, what is costing them dollars even without a decision to change? You need to become a CSI agent for customer well-being. Find the source or cause of major pain to point out to the executive – even if they do not see it (This is difficult for some sales people to understand – customers sometimes do not see the problem unless it is pointed out to them.)

You can improve the quality and delivery of questions. It does require some practice time – winging it is NOT AN OPTION! If you can’t afford a consultant – get the financial types from your company or the local banker to practice your questions and handling of responses. If you do want some professional guidance, give me a call at 901-757-4434 and let’s talk about how to be bold and effective.

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Posted by Voss Graham on June 10, 2009 at 5:00 am under Sales.
Tags: asking better questions, getting people to think, Provocative questions, Sales effectiveness, sales success
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T.E.A.M.S. Uncovers What Makes Your Teams Successful or Not

Ran across another Dysfunctional Team last week and since books have been written about this topic, I thought you might want to know about how to uncover just what makes a team great, poor or average. The interesting thing about this process is when you ask the team using an assessment or interviews, they will tell you what’s going on, what’s causing any issues and why they are doing well.

Team members know the answers to these questions, managers and leaders just need to take the time to ask them for the facts. They are ready, willing and wanting to share with everyone the details of the team performance.

While there are several methods to uncover information about any team, department, division, group or in the case of a small company – the whole company. So what does this assessment called T.E.A.M.S. measure? Continue reading ‘T.E.A.M.S. Uncovers What Makes Your Teams Successful or Not’ »

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Posted by Voss Graham on June 9, 2009 at 5:16 am under Team Building, Using Assessments.
Tags: Group Processes, Leadership, relationships, T.E.A.M.S., Using Assessments, Work Management Skills
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Sales People – Flex to Sell Well

It continues to confound me that sales people do not totally understand what flexing their style will do for their sales results. It is a basic communication technique used to gain rapport with others. It is the key to effective communication.

Yet, every week I see sales people mismatching their styles with customers and then complain about the customer not acting upon their offer.

One sales person last week was a perfect example. An aggressive, direct and fast paced individual who usually takes no prisoners in their selling style is selling to a passive, yet friendly and slow paced customer. The sales person was talking business for the start, using logic to gain acceptance to ideas and statements. The sales person asked direct (and uncomfortable) questions to the customer and expected direct and compelling answers.

The customer was friendly and smiled some, yet, became visually uncomfortable with the barrage of direct questions. This person needed time to review the process and find out the answers to the questions. The customer listened to the logic driven explanations and was polite, but was not buying in to the pressure packed offers. Finally, the old “I’m not ready to buy anything today, let me think about and I’ll get back to you!” statement came from the customer.

The reality of the situation was the customer would use passive aggressive techniques to get rid of the sales person. Appearing to accept the logic and the pressure, while knowing that there will be not buying happening soon with this sales person.

Why does this happen? The sales person is selling the way the sales person would buy, rather than observing the style of the customer and selling to the customer the way the customer wants to be sold. This is not some type of rocket science – it is style in action – preferences of each person overriding the need for rapport and trust.

The sales person was not paying attention to the fact that this customer preferred indirect questions which in the customer’s mind are “safe” questions. And, surprisingly an indirect question will be answered with a direct and real answer. This customer needed to know that the offer was safe, “quiet” and smooth in implementation, would cause no issues for the customer in the future and that others would approve of the decision.

These are simple techniques to use, however, a sales person must take the time to learn about the styles and how to flex to the different styles effectively. This requires some training and development time, that will convert into major gains in sales results, rapport with customers and higher levels of trust.

Contact us about learning how to flex your style. Check out our Flexible Selling website and gain some insight into why it is important to understand your own style, how to recognize others’ styles and then use the most effective techniques for rapport and trust building. Call us at 901-757-4434.

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Posted by Voss Graham on June 8, 2009 at 5:24 am under Sales.
Tags: communication selling techniques, Effective communication skills, Flexible Selling, Increasing Revenues, Sales Tip
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Self-Limiting Beliefs Holding You Back?

Most people have no idea that their thoughts are the reason for a lack of high performance or goal achievement. These little messages inside our own heads continue to plague our performance and our execution.

Self-limiting beliefs are at the core of the issue. You could call it programming for lack of success. And, the interesting thing is in most cases the belief started due to an innocent statement or a “helpful” comment from a friend or relative. Yes, helpful people – who were authority figures at the time – buried a thought deep in our subconscious mind. And, that thought has limited our performance ever since.

Some people have told me at this time that I must be “off my rocker” when making a statement like this. Well, I may be “off my rocker” on a number of things – but this is not one of them. The truth is found in how the brain works. Emotional information, phrases or statements get stored in our mind and sit there or actually influence our actions and responses to certain stimulus. In other words, our actions are influenced by our subconscious thoughts.

These thought are triggered at some of the worst possible moments – a salesperson calling on new prospect – thought trigger is “be wary of strangers!” and the sales person loses confidence and creates issues so the salesperson can get away from the prospect; an employee is about to work on a company critical project – a thought trigger is “you never complete anything!” and the employee struggles to finish the project on time.

Thoughts are also influence and are present in other areas of our life – health issues, weight issues, social skills, ability to write or speak, make a certain golf shot – they are impacting our results every day. So, what are you doing about these thoughts?

Ignoring them is not a correct answer, they are present in your subconscious mind and influencing everything you do. Some are helping and others are hurting you.

If you want to take a proactive position in dealing with your subconscious beliefs – you need to contact my partner – Robin Graham. She is an expert at assisting people in overcoming the limiting effects of their thoughts. Creating a new Mindset for Success – and controlling or reprogramming those pesky subconscious thoughts into helpful influences.

The key is for your to take control of your life and your outcomes. Call our office at 901-757-4434 or go to our store site and register for Robin’s upcoming June 25-26 Basic Workshop in Memphis. Be a winner and take control of your thoughts and your performance.

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Posted by Voss Graham on June 5, 2009 at 5:23 am under Managing Beliefs.
Tags: Basic PSYCHK workshop, controlling your thougths, Managing Beliefs, self-limiting beliefs
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Personal Development Really Is Important

Interesting thing talking to the leaders, managers and sales people with all sizes of organizations, the number of people who tell me they do not have time for Personal Development is alarming.

How do they think or feel they are going to get better over time? Opps! That’s the real issue – they believe they have all ready arrived. Especially the highly educated left-brained individuals who think they already have all the answers. These people are dangerous to the health of your organization.

Now that is a strong statement – being dangerous to the health of the company – yet, it is true. There are reason for this statement. Continue reading ‘Personal Development Really Is Important’ »

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Posted by Voss Graham on June 4, 2009 at 5:05 am under Personal Development.
Tags: Continuous learning, how to improve, Personal Development, Phoenix Seminar
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Leaders Create the Corporate Culture

I had a spirited discussion with a friend of mine about how culture is developed within a organization. He took the position that culture just forms on its own and leaders have little impact on the overall culture.

My point of view was different. I agreed that many corporate cultures are formed by the collective beliefs and opinions of the people within the organization. However, this is a direct bearing on the total lack of attention or effort applied by the leadership of these organizations.

My belief is leaders have a direct responsibility for creating the corporate culture within their organization.

How can you have a high performance culture if the leadership is not creating this attitude within the organization? Leaders need to establish the culture that will contribute to the fulfillment of the strategic goals of the organization. Leaders using group presentations, project priorities, policies that encourage growth and innovation, one on one discussion with key influencers and the ability to walk their own talk create an environment that is supportive of the leaders directions and goals.

A common trait found in observing the performance of effective leaders is their ability to create a “can-do” culture. Poor leaders create a culture of CYA and blame, blame, who gets the blame today? The best leaders keep people seeing the possibilities rather than the limitations. They create a high energy team who regularly go the extra mile to accomplish goals that others felt were impossible.

It’s all about the culture you develop and support with your actions. Take time each week to review what is going on around you. Talk to people, encourage your team with positive statements, and take the necessary steps to insure you get the culture that contributes to your mission.

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Posted by Voss Graham on June 3, 2009 at 5:43 am under Leadership.
Tags: Corporate Culture, Creating a High Performance Culture, Great Leadership, High Performance Teams
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Archive for June, 2009

Workplace Motivators Tell the “WHY” We Do Things

DISC tells You the “How” People Do Things

What’s Your Preference – Goals or Problems?

Is It Time to Revisit the Sales Basics?

Provocative or Bold, it’s About Taking a Chance

T.E.A.M.S. Uncovers What Makes Your Teams Successful or Not

Sales People – Flex to Sell Well

Self-Limiting Beliefs Holding You Back?

Personal Development Really Is Important

Leaders Create the Corporate Culture

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