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"Progress!"
(Progress-U Leadership & Coaching) - Issue No3 / Apr 03
Contents
of this "Progress!" Issue
0. Opinion
1. Leadership
Serial: Ready
for leading in troubled waters? (3/3)
2. Career Development
Regular Feature:
Recruitment Tips: Jumping on Ice Bricks
3. Coaching
Viewpoint: Case
Study (2/2): How to deal with the conflict animal
4. News
Seminars, New Articles, ...
5. Management Tip
Sales Management:
What is the "REAL" benefit?
0. Opinion
Dear Reader in "Progress!",
When I launched this Newsletter merely
two months ago and decided to include the serial "Ready for leading
in troubled waters", I never imagined in my wildest dreams that
crisis leadership would become such a hot issue in Hong Kong only
a few weeks later.
Although it is obvious that certain
sectors such as transportation and tourism are highly affected by
the outbreak of SARS, actually every business in Hong Kong is hit
to a certain extent. The reason is that this epidemic is an issue
for every person living in this city, which is probably rattled by
SARS like no other in this world.
Before writing this Editorial, I was
re-reading my above article (for the full
article on crisis leadership please click here)
and found that it is largely applicable to the present situation many
Hong Kong corporations are facing now.
What else is particularly important
in the current situation? Crisis management is for sure an important
step to save the future of the company but leadership means more than
that. True leaders emerge in such times of trouble. They don't try
to convince with facts but rather show understanding of the fears
of their team members, no matter how justified or not they may be,
because they know that they deal with an irrational situation. At
the same time they are models of outstanding courage. They are ready
to take adequate steps and to put in place whatever it might take
to overcome this situation.
Wishing you true leadership in these
difficult times!
Yours sincerely,
Charlie Lang
Executive Coach and Founder of Progress-U Ltd.
P.S.: If any
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1. Leadership
Serial:
Ready for leading in troubled waters? (Part 3/3)
"Are you strong enough to lead
your company out of troubled waters?"
Part
1/3 Intro & Analysis ("Progress!" Issue No. 1)
Part
2/3 Taking Action & Potential Barriers ("Progress!"
Issue No. 2)
Part 3/3 Enemies & Support ("Progress!"
Issue No. 3)
In the first two parts I described
the pre-conditions for dealing effectively with a crisis situation
and what to consider when taking action. Also I stated the importance
of an adequate communication policy to minimize the emergence of potential
barriers such as rumors, etc.
Enemies
Potential "enemies" of the
leader are usually not to be found in the workshop but rather in the
offices nearby. Hence, it is important for him to think about who
could try to use the given situation to sabotage the leader for his
or her own benefit. Also, any important information to the management
circle needs to be distributed to the staff in a condensed form very
soon after. This way, it will be difficult for the enemies to build
up a lobby against the leader. In case it becomes obvious that certain
employees try to start a rebellion against the leader, such persons
must be removed immediately in order to avoid greater damage to the
company. At the same time it is crucial for the leader to establish
a loyal and committed team; in fact, a crisis situation can be an
excellent opportunity for the leader to get better rooted in the organization.
It can also be useful to look beyond the direct reports and examine
the 2nd management level where very bright people can often be found.
These employees know the company for a long time and might have very
valuable concepts, which aremore or less ready to be implemented but
never had the chance to be proven.
Support
Clearly, turnaround management and leadership
in a crisis is a great challenge for any executive. Important and
often painful decisions have to be made continuously, and rumors have
to be kept at low levels, as an adequate information policy is a challenge
in itself. So it is only natural that a leader requires at least one
person she or he can trust 100%, who can provide an alternative view
on the consequences of any decision to be made. This "sparring
partner" ideally is a person who is experienced in similar situations
and has a good understanding of the psychological effects of decisions
that often make or break the turnaround.
Effective communication
reduces the risk of other managers sabotaging your crisis management
efforts. A crisis is a good chance to build a very loyal team. And
it is highly recommended to look for a sparring partner with whom
every important decision can be weighed as the consequences can
be enormous.
End of Series
- for the full article on leadership in crisis please
click
here
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2. Career Development
Regular
Feature: Recruitment
Tips: Jumping on Sheets of Ice
It was some 30 years ago, near a little
village in Northern Germany, that the winter was cold and the water
of a small lake was entirely frozen. That was the time when the kids
of the village played their favorite winter game "Jumping on
Sheets of Ice". They would break the ice with axes into pieces
of approx. 50 by 50 cm size and then push one sheet below one another.
At the end, only half of the lake was covered with floating ice sheets.
These "double" ice sheets
could carry a boy but only for a short while, then they would start
to sink slowly. Two teams would be created and posted on each side
of the lake. The objective of the game was for the whole team to reach
the other side of the lake without falling or sinking into the ice-cold
water. It was not dangerous as the maximum depth of the water was
less than one meter. However, it was bad enough to get completely
wet in the freezing water. Worse was the trouble with upset parents.
Watching the game it could soon be seen
that there were more and less smart "jumpers". The less
smart ones jumped on any "island" they could reach if it
would bring them closer to their target; however, quite often it would
happen that all of a sudden they face 2-3 meters of open water without
any double sheet around, and so they would eventually sink. The smarter
ones instead looked ahead, anticipated the consequences of each leap
and would jump only on sheets which assured that they would be able
to move forward. Eventually they had to accept some deviations but
they definitely didn't sink.
You can probably already assume what
I want to tell you. Many CV's of job applicants show that they "jumped"
to their last position without considering the next jump, without
considering the longer-term consequences of their actions. Now that
they need or want to make their next leap, there is only water around.
Hence, before accepting any offer, one should check whether this position
provides a sheet of ice nearby to jump on; if not, it's best to let
go of it.
Conclusion:
Career Planning is like jumping on sheets of ice; before jumping
or accepting any offer, you had better watched for the next sheet
of ice you can jump on in order to move forward. If there is only
water around it is better to reject such opportunities.
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3. Coaching
View
Point: Case Study
(2/2): How to deal with the conflict animal
Part
1 described the basics of conflicts, why they arise, what they
could mean and the importance of dealing with them actively.
After my client started
to see the benefits of "dealing with the wolf", he asked
me how to do this in the most effective and efficient manner. I asked
him in return how he deals with conflicts. His reply was that in case
he could not escape the conflict, he would basically be "reactive"
and "protective", meaning trying to cover himself up as
well as possible. I asked him whether he felt that this strategy proved
to be effective and efficient which he denied. He said that it usually
led to a long and exhausting and sometimes even outrageous discussion.
I asked him to describe it in the context of a conflict between two
wolves. His reply was that both wolves suffered from smaller or bigger
injuries depending on the intensity of the conflict. And answering
the question of what was the final result, he said that the issues
he tried to cover up in an attempt to save himself, needed to surface
in order to reach a conclusion. The same was true for the other party.
The client realized
in this process that an open, truthful and self-critical communication
was the key for dealing effectively with conflicts. He started to
understand that he has to make the first step in opening up and then
make the other party comfortable to open up as well. However, this
shift in behavior would not happen over night. The client would fall
in the trap of his old behavior until he would successfully implement
this new habit of dealing with conflicts. A way to achieve such behavioral
change is to practice them in role plays. Another possibility is to
have a trusted person with whom actual behavior in conflict situations
can be cross-checked and adjusted step by step so as to create the
new habit.
Conclusion:
Open and truthful communication is the key to efficient and effective
conflict management. Changes in behavior require a shift in habits
which must be learned through training and/or a continuous feedback
process.
End
of Series
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4. News
Experience Coaching
- For the Special Spring Offer extended to May 03 click here:
http://www.progressu.com/SpecialSpringOffer2003
For upcoming seminars
& events please click here:
http://www.progressu.com/Seminars.htm
For recent Articles
on Coaching please click here:
http://www.progressu.com/ArticlesonCoaching.htm
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5. Management Tip
Sales
Management: "From features to product benefits
to customer benefits"
"You have to sell
the benefits to the customer, not the features of the product!"
Yes, I agree; but unfortunately, listening to most of the sales people
I regret that there are still way too many who try to sell the features
of the products such as a very powerful engine in a car or the advanced
technical data of a machine tool. The better sales executives at least
try to sell the benefits of the product; in the above case the better
acceleration due to the engine or the possibility of more precise
machining of a work piece.
Regrettably, these are
still not customer benefits, these are just product benefits. It still
requires the customer to think what is actually HER or HIS benefit
when buying the product. Excellent sales people therefore know, that
ONLY the actual customer benefit will hit a chord with the customer
and dramatically raise the level of interest.
The challenge in determining
customer benefits are twofold:
a) The sales person
must step out of his perspective, seeing his product or service and
take the viewpoint of his prospective customer
b) The sales person
must first explore the purchase motivation(s) of the customer, and
then determine the RELEVANT benefit to the customer
Research found that
there are 17 different motivations why people buy, and often there
are a combination of buying motivations. In the B2B environment there
are usually four key motivators for buying which are:
- savings in money
- savings in time
- security
- recognition
In almost all purchase
situations you will discover at least one of the above key motivators
and it is up to the sales person to work out which relevant customer
benefits match these motivations. In the above example with the car
the sales person may find out that the customer is very security oriented.
Even in that case the feature of the powerful engine can be translated
into a relevant customer benefit by stating that the powerful engine
provides sufficient reserves to overcome critical situations, e.g.
when overtaking a tractor and all of a sudden another car comes from
the other direction, there will be still a possibility to accelerate
and escape the dangerous situation. Or the feature of the more precise
and thus more expensive machine tool could be translated into a customer
benefit for a bottom line oriented customer by providing calculations
how savings can be made by producing less waste and revenues can be
increased by achieving superior workpiece quality.
Conclusion:
Selling customer benefits requires more customer orientation, i.e.
a good understanding of the customer's needs and wants. The sales
arguments must be worked out individually for each customer motivation.
In brochures, this can be done by covering several key motivations;
in one-to-one sales conversations the excellent sales person will
investigate first and then apply the relevant customer benefits.
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