Posts tagged ‘Voss W Graham’
I know this is an off beat title for a business service, yet, to me it hits the right nerve for getting people to think about the hiring process.
Dating services are unique and a little mysterious for anyone who has not used one (like me). The principles they use is to MATCH people to improve the probabilities of a long term relationship. Actually, that sounds like a very good purpose when you look around at all the unhappy relationships and bad marriages.
In the world of business, the dating game is expanded to both finding excellent talent for your organization and finding prospects and customers who match your ideal customer profile for excellent business relationships.
Today, I want to focus upon the Job Matching function for hiring and selection of superior talent. Continue reading ‘Job Matching is NOT a Dating Service – Maybe it Should Be’ »
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Posted by Voss Graham on October 31, 2011 at 4:14 pm under Hiring, Selection and Retention.
Tags: Hiring Process, hiring talent, Job Matching, job success practices, list of bad hring habits, Voss W Graham
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Continuing our theme from yesterday, let’s look at a number of questions to use with yourself and the key stakeholders who will be responsible for executing your vision.
Your vision will need to have buy-in and engagement of others to it to become a reality. Therefore, it will be important to get the stakeholders involved early in the process to improve the probability of successful execution.
Here are Twelve Questions for Engaging Your Key Stakeholders… Continue reading ‘Questions for Expanding the Execution of Your Vision’ »
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Posted by Voss Graham on September 1, 2011 at 2:14 am under Strategy.
Tags: 12 questions for executing a new vision, engaging stakeholders, game changing events, new business vision, new strategy, Voss W Graham
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Just reflecting on what has been happening to our businesses over the past three years. Seems our world has turned either upside down or is significantly tilted to one side. Therefore, I would say it is time to review what we see as our future.
With all the changes, there are probably “new” norms as to how the world is operating today. So, again, more thought and reflection is required before making any definitive moves or decisions.
So what do you need to do first? You must ask some serious questions and using an open mind with out any limitations – answer the questions honestly and straight forwardly. In fact, I would say think about getting a group of key stakeholders together and have this question and answer session facilitated for total engagement of everyone involved. Continue reading ‘Questions to Ask When Creating Your Future Vision’ »
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Posted by Voss Graham on August 31, 2011 at 1:56 am under Strategy.
Tags: engage creativity for a future vision, engaged stakeholders, having a company vision, questions for thought, Voss W Graham
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For a few years now people have been talking about the Starbucks domination of the coffee market. And, the CEO and other Guru’s of the Business World have stated the difference is in the Starbucks Experience. And, while I personally prefer my select coffee beans, I can not argue with the success this company has had over the years.
You will very seldom find an empty Starbucks outlet (Okay, smarter I heard that and I know no one is there when the store is closed. 
) so they must be doing something right. And, that is the truth. Like Apple Inc , Starbucks have loyal customers who keep coming back everyday of the week.
So, what does it mean to have loyal customers?
Seems to mean a lot, that is if you like making money consistently.
So to support his emotional claim, I looked for some research into the numbers and data showing if there was a difference between ordinary customer service (reactive) and developing Loyalty from your customers. And, the research data does show it is very important to your bottom line to get this customer loyalty stuff right. Continue reading ‘Customer Service or Experience – What does it matter?’ »
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Posted by Voss Graham on August 29, 2011 at 1:42 am under Customer Service.
Tags: Apple products, customer experiences, customer loyalty, customer relationships, loyal customers, Voss W Graham, Why Starbucks customers are loyal
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Having one of those thoughtful moments about the quality of people in our world today. I have read Brian Tracy’s wonderful book – “Something For Nothing” which I believe was one of his best works of writing. Maybe because knowing Brian as I do, he was very authentic in sharing his thoughts and ideas in this book.
But back to the purpose of this writing – Life Lessons for an Improved Standard of Living Life. While my thoughts have moved past the initial thoughts of relating Standard of Living to a certain amount of money or income level – my focus is upon the idea of Living Life well.
There are numerous ways to relate the Living Life agenda – and yes, some want to focus upon money or income as they measuring stick. However, I would prefer to take it the level of choices we make – daily, weekly, monthly and yearly. The choices we make create our world of reality.
So let’s look at three specific Life Lessons as we think about how these impact the choices we make. Continue reading ‘Life Lessons for an Improved Standard of Living Life’ »
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Posted by Voss Graham on August 24, 2011 at 8:51 am under Managing Adversity, Personal Development, Prosperity.
Tags: Accountability habits, Choices we make, Impact of choices, life choices, Living Life Well, Standard of Living, Voss W Graham
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Interesting thing happened last week as a client was reflecting upon how much they wanted to “Think Outside the Box.”
Now, normally when I hear this statement I get all excited about doing something new and out of the ordinary. To take a risk – a calculated risk for sure – and find new ways to do things. These new things or ways should lead to differentiation and greater results.
Well, a funny thing happened along the path to working outside the box. I felt resistance to a number of ideas and thoughts about ways to change how things were being done. I was excited as the visions of significant improvements and greater results were dancing in my head (I know it sounds like I’m talking about Christmas – sorry!) Then I began to truly listen to the blocks and comments about the new ideas – which were not coming from the originator of the statement – Thinking Outside the Box.
I realized we were still playing in their Box rather than another Box where the ideas were flowing rapidly. Continue reading ‘When Thinking Outside the Box – Whose Box?’ »
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Posted by Voss Graham on August 23, 2011 at 5:49 pm under Change Management, Innovation.
Tags: Change Management, focused energy, greater results when focused, Innovation, outside the box thinking, thinking outside the box, Voss W Graham, whose box are we outside
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While having some quiet time I focused my thoughts on what it takes to grow a business today – particularly in light of the interesting market we are in today.
So, I looked into growth patterns and types of growth and meaningful growth and how we should be looking at this universal concept. Having been in the world of business since the early 1970′s, I have seen just about every possible business cycle you can imagine – from hyper inflationary periods when you could get 14% on a bank CD; to mini recessions and lots of boom or go-go periods in between and now the latest addition of major recession. Truthfully, I have not experienced a depression, yet, it was openly shared to me from my grandparents who lived through the worst of times.
Okay, enough background let’s get back on the topic of growth. Other than do you have a plan for your minimum growth to keep your operation functioning productively and keep all your resources engaged – we can move into a few major points to consider when discussing and planning your growth engine.
First, you need to know the range of growth necessary to keep your operation smooth and efficient. No shortages of talent, resources, cash, production or distribution sources and finally products availability for sale. You need to have a clear understanding of the “must have” growth and then an “upper end or maxed out” growth plan. Think contingency planning for both real growth and hyper-growth. Continue reading ‘How do You Grow Your Business Today?’ »
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Posted by Voss Graham on August 22, 2011 at 1:56 am under Performance Improvement.
Tags: Growth, Growth engines, Growth planning, healthy business growth, high margin sales growth, unheathy business growth, Voss W Graham
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Earlier this month I wrote a post about the subject of managers needing to be fixed – which they don’t. Yet, today I was reflecting on past coaching assignments with non=managers who were mostly fast trackers with People Skill issues.
While these very smart and very technically savvy individuals were critical to there company’s overall success, they all had one thing in common. Poor People Skills was their Achilles Heal. Seems these people were frequently being reported to Human Resources due to some issue or conflict.
Here is what we found working with these talented people who unfortunately lacked some understanding of how to play well with others. There are Seven Issues… Continue reading ‘Do People Need to be Fixed? Seven Results’ »
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Posted by Voss Graham on August 18, 2011 at 1:51 am under High Performance Factors.
Tags: Arrogance, behavioral style differences, coachable issues, dehiring, fixing people skills, low self esteem, personal beliefs and philosophies, Voss W Graham
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First, I am assuming you are a goal seeker rather than a problem solver. However, if you are a problem solver just change the wording found in the six steps to match a problem solving strategy.
Now, I realize what I just said has caught a few of you goal oriented people by surprise. And, I can imagine some of you are thinking I must be nuts since everyone knows about and wants to achieve goals.
Well, my forward thinking group of goal seekers welcome to the real world of preferences. About half the population is all about moving away from problems rather than towards an objective or goal. (Managers please pay close attention to this if you want to make ALL your team members successful.) People who move away from problems are great at solving issues the goal seekers have difficulty dealing with – another example of matching the people (goal or problem solver) to the requirements of jobs, tasks or projects.
In any event, there are six quick steps to achieving your goal or solving your problems (problem solvers please just rewrite the steps in terms acceptable to you.). Continue reading ‘Six Quick Steps to Achieving Your Goals’ »
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Posted by Voss Graham on August 16, 2011 at 2:28 am under Goals.
Tags: away from problem solvers, goal achievers, Goals, goals or problems, quick steps to achievement, six steps to goal achievement, Voss W Graham
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Recently I was in a conversion with an executive about the cost of turnover in his organization and realized this executive had no understanding to the true cost of his turnover problem. If you are only looking at the salary loss or replacement, then you are short sighted on the other factors involved.
Yes, salary lost is the main factor as is the benefit packages you offer to your employees. Then there are another eight factors to look into when calculating the true cost of turnover. These factors can be quite large when you get them all added up. And, you need to know the true cost of employee turnover – if you want to get motivated to proper fix the problem.
Here are the Eight Factors involved in Employee Turnover… Continue reading ‘The True Cost Factors of Employee Turnover’ »
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Posted by Voss Graham on August 15, 2011 at 1:55 am under Hiring, Selection and Retention.
Tags: candidates, cost of turnover, job and talent matching, lost productivity issues, professional hiring systems, true cost of turnover, Voss W Graham
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