Many people have asked me where marketing begins and ends. That is a great question and I think marketing touches everything you say, touch, small, think, and do. With that I created this quick quiz for you. If marketing is everything (and so far no one has been able to prove to me otherwise) then you are marketing to your employees, staff, vendors, and partners all the time. Are you making the best use of your marketing with these people? Let's see...
Read and assess each question and think about how you are doing in the category of the question.
1. YOUR JOB PERFORMANCE IS BASED ON WHAT YOU VALUE. WHAT DO YOU VALUE? ARE YOU AWARE OF YOUR VALUES?
Forget the others for just a second and ask yourself, “How’s my performance?” Of course your employees have to deliver results. But are you delivering results to your employees? And since you are the employee of your boss, do you deliver to your boss? What is your forecast for each person on your team, for each product or service your company sells, for your department, for yourself, and for the company as a whole? If you don’t know what to expect from yourself, then you can’t possibly know what to expect from anyone else.
Get real. Get in touch with your own performance, credibility, reliability, integrity, etc. You should be able to forecast the performance of intangible items (morale, focus, attitude, team cohesiveness, communication) and tangible items (productivity, efficiency, profit/loss, shrinkage, expenses, etc.). If you can’t measure results, then you don’t have any results, right? Check your job performance. Who are you, what do you want, where are you going, and why are you working here? (hint: the quick and easy way to discover what you value is to notice what you focus your time, attention, and awareness on. If you tend to be stressed out a lot, you value being stressed. Figure out what you think you’re getting from being stressed. Then, if you want, change that behavior.)
2.EVERYONE’S PERFORMANCE IS BASED ON LOYALTY IN RELATIONSHIPS. HOW IS YOUR TEAM DOING ON THESE?
Do you have fair pay and benefits that compares well with other employers? Is there a minimum commitment to job security? Is the working environment safe, attractive, energizing, and alive? Are individuals’ responsibilities maximized for how a job is done? Are work hours flexible or rigid? Are they self-motivated learners who are responsible for their own learning curve? Are there opportunities for: growth, ongoing training, internal promotions? Do you allow team members to make constructive mistakes? Are the social and economic distinctions between management and other employees reduced? Do employees have a right to: due process, information, free speech, direct and honest and immediate feedback, the right to confront authority, the right to not be a part of the family team? Do they treat each other with respect and dignity?
Do they respect each other’s past career knowledge, their “up-to-now” knowledge? Are employees able to: share rewards from productivity improvements, share profits, share recognition, share ownership of the company? Are there limited politics? Do they develop enthusiastically satisfied customers? Do they develop loyal customers? Do they recognize that profitability is essential to everyone’s future success? Do they embrace diversity as an essential component in the way they do business? Is there a sense of community building and teamwork? Do they have mentors, learning partners, job coaches, someone to look up to? Who are your employees, what do they want, where are they going, and why are they working here?
3. HOW DO YOU FOCUS ON POSITIVE GROWTH THAT IS “FOR BETTER OR FOR BETTER?”
In case you didn’t know it yet, people are called managers because all of life—including work and career—is managed. It is not “perfected.” If it could be perfected you would be called a “perfecter” and not a “manager.” Situations are managed, not perfected. Got it? Therefore you have to feel the connection to the people above you, below you, and to those who are in lateral positions. You have to feel, and be connected to, important information, markets, and both your internal and external customers. You also have to be aware of your competition’s internal and external customers.
Do you make time for direct, one-on-one communication with everyone associated with a particular project? Do you follow-through on commitments and then do you follow-up? Is your own training up-to-date? Are you able to listen to your own wisdom and determine the best direction for each particular project, situation, or employee? Do you have people and information resources you can turn to during those times when you need coaching, mentoring, or a little help? Do you use the four steps of superior training: tell, show, do, feedback?
• Tell: explain to your employee(s) what you are doing and why.
• Show: make sure the employee is shown how to do the task.
• Do: ask the employee to perform the task.
• Feedback: give information to the employee on what was good about their performance and what needs to be improved.
How do you use the four steps to guarantee success? How do you make them failure-proof? Here’s how. It is important to note that thousands of studies have shown that when people learn anything new, they retain:
• 10% of what they READ
• 20% of they HEAR
• 30% of what they SEE
• 50% of what they HEAR and SEE
• 70% of what they SAY
• 90% of they HEAR, SAY, and DO
Therefore, the more your employees can retain about their training experiences, and all their ongoing learning experiences, the more likely they are to perform up to your expectations, up to the company’s expectations, and they will be happily empowered employees ready, willing, and fully capable of generating increased profits for you, the team, and the company. Feedback helps anyone become highly proficient in their skills and ability to perform. It builds confidence because when people are given feedback they know where they stand. Feedback takes away the fear factor, the fate factor, and the uncertainty. Feedback builds certainty. If you are really after certain results, then you must use the tools that create certainty. It’s the only way. Ready for some tips on effective feedback?
The Triple Always Guarantee Tips to Effective Feedback:
• Always focus on specific behaviors and not on what you perceive to be the other person’s feelings, attitudes, or perception of the situation. Talk in specifics, not vague generalities.
• Always describe only what you directly saw, heard, or read. Avoid all personal judgments. Demonstrate genuine concern for the recipient of the feedback by not evaluating the recipient’s motivations or intentions.
• Always ask questions, avoid putting words in their mouth by assuming what went on, avoid making statements.
• Always tell ‘em what they did that was good, right, and effective. Balance the “blow” when you tell ‘em what needs to be improved. Describe behaviors that can be changed.
• Always make your feedback “free, fast, friendly, and forever” by giving feedback that is regular, consistent, as immediate as possible, direct, and honest. Allow the employee to retain self-respect and dignity by allowing them to “save face.” Feedback is given and received easiest when it is well-timed when the recipient is receptive and soon after the event has occurred.
• Always enhance self-esteem and reinforce desired behavior by sharing the “what, what, why” when giving feedback. State the following:
What was said or done that was good
What could be done in the future to make sure the good continues
Why what was said or done is so effective
• Always maintain employee self-esteem when you want to change behavior by stating the following:
What was said or done and the impact it had
What should be said or done differently
Why the second “what” is more effective
If you ALWAYS follow these tips for effective feedback, I guarantee that you will ALWAYS produce amazing results that will ALWAYS:
• Empower your employees
• Create happy, loyal customers
• Find the right person for the right job
• Generate increased profits for everyone
• Provide outstanding service in crisis situations
• Provide service that is free, fast, friendly, forever
4. IF BAD NEWS COMING TO YOU IN WAVES, IS THERE A LACK OF TRUST?
This goes back to why you are called a Manager and not a Perfecter. All work in business is managed, not perfected. However, you are also not called the destroyer, you are expected to create results favorable to the company, to yourself, and to your internal and external customers. Find out what the buzz is. Is it good? Bad? Indifferent? If you don’t know what the general tone is, whether it is one of excellence or rotten at the core, then you don’t have an accurate base of knowledge from which to base all your executive decisions.
If you don’t know what the news update is about what is going on, someone will make an executive decision about you. Get fired up about what is going on before you get fired. Creative and innovative solutions to problems (that reveal themselves to you via “bad news”) can only be discovered by using a questioning process. Questions open us up to awareness, understanding, and seeing the truth about a situation (we always presume that you want the truth.). Use these tips for questioning the bad news:
• ALWAYS ask questions that are not “yes” and “no” questions only.
• ALWAYS ask questions that are clear, concise, and cogent.
• ALWAYS ask questions that don’t require tons of clarification.
• ALWAYS ask leading questions so that the listener learns to evaluate information by comparing it to their own experiences. “Lead” them to their own answers without telling them the answers.
• ALWAYS ask questions relevant to the immediate situation (hint: if you are harkening way, way back to a past situation that is most likely no longer relevant, then you obviously didn’t follow the tip on making sure your feedback is ALWAYS as immediate as you can make it.)
• NEVER ask questions that allow your employees to repeat what you have already told them.
• NEVER ask questions to intimidate, belittle, mock, or “destroy” someone.
• NEVER ask questions that only confirm your personal agenda that has nothing to do with work, professionalism, or the task at hand (i.e.: “I’m the best darned boss you ever had, who ever walked the face of the earth, don’t you agree?”)
• NEVER ask questions to embarrass, harass, or encourage a hostile environment Remember that “harassment” is defined not from your definition of what is harassment, but from the point of view of the other person feeling harassed!
I know this is a lot of information to digest, but in my experience these strategies have worked in near-miracle like precision and created excellence for my teams, our clients, and for our own employees, too. What do you think> Do you have some experiences you can share? Pelase do.
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