Valhalla Business Solutions - Business Management Consultants

Sales Management Consulting Specializing In... Sales and service Systems, Managing younger generations, Management protocols Coaching effectiveness


Saturday, January 30, 2010

Now I am a Manager, What’s My Job?


I had numerous conversations with managers this week, so many struggling with the production of their teams, struggling with pressures from their superiors and so on. There are many common denominators to the adversity manager’s face, but one shadowed the rest this week. A manager so often believes they are brought in for their “Technical Work” strategies. This is not the case. What is “Technical Work?” Technical work would be the day to day work of a plumber or the day to day work of a sales person, realtor, and mechanic and so on.

A plumber installs piping. A sales person makes sales calls. A realtor shows houses. The mechanic changes oil.

How is a manager measured?

· Production of their team

A successful manager understands they are not measured by their great ideas or solutions, but the solutions created and implemented by their team. This statement may confuse many managers, but take a look back at how you are measured.

What does a manager do?

· Creates a learning environment

· Builds a team

· Emotionally engages their employees

· Recognizes the efforts and successes of the technical work being accomplished

· Opens the door to communication

· Welcomes ideas and solutions

· Promotes Self Discovery…

· Customer Service to employees

· Creates frequent communication forums for their teams

If a manager can immediately adopt a strategy of soliciting solutions from their team, then trust and encourage their employees to see it through. The successes will be endless.

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Saturday, January 16, 2010

Measuring Success (Setting Life Goals)

Below is a quick exercise to assist you in making the proper goals in your life.

  1. Blank Piece of Paper
  2. Fold the Paper in Half
  3. On the left side of the paper write at the top "Accomplishments"
  4. On the right side of the paper right down the things you want highlighted about you at your funeral
Note: the younger you are you may not have much to list, but I challenge you to dig deep and think about the milestone you are most proud of. Secondly of the accomplishments you mentioned, how many would you want spoken about at your funeral?

The goal of this exercise is to establish the things most important for you to accomplish in your life time?

Things to consider when you are through evaluating what you want to accomplish...
  1. What did I do today to accomplish these goals?
  2. What do I have planned tomorrow?
  3. Are my goals realistic?
  4. What is the predominant theme of my goals? (spiritual, family, career, monetary)
  5. How close is the situation I am in today helping me achieve what is most important to me?
Life is short! If your situation is off course, change it tomorrow!

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Monday, August 24, 2009

Paying too much for Credit Card Processing- 3 Ways to Know

1) Excessive Fees
  • Fixed Fees- your processor may often charge an annual fee, account maintenance fee, statement fee and so on. Many of those fees can be avoided
2) Per Item fee
  • If your item charge excedes $.10 it maybe worth switching your processor on this item alone
3) Discount Rate
  • This is the most misleading piece of your statement, you should see a variety of charges. Have a professional you trust review what you are paying, often this number can be really good, however they make up for it in fixed fees.

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Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Keep Your Employees

Keep you Employees

  • Hiring Process
  • High Expectations
  • Recognition
  • Feedback
  • One on one
  • Promotions


I felt compelled to write this after a conversation I had with a client. This manager was truly torn with the idea that one of his employees was leaving his organization to work for someone else. He really struggled with the lack of loyalty. When the truth is what process have you as the business owner done to create loyalty? You may as the manager emotionally feel it. You have invested time, money, etc. However that is what a business owner values in a relationship. An employee has different values.

Valhalla has many solutions for creating loyalty, however here is some simple steps...

Hiring process- Behaviorally determine if this employee has a track record for loyalty. Ask questions such as...
  • Talk about a job you were truly passionate about, why?
  • Tell us about a time you felt your loyalty was in question, what was the situation? What did you do?

These are questions that can assist you in determining loyalty. However loyalty absolutely cannot be your only basis for hire.

High Expectations- A manager often has really high expectations for themselves, but as they begin to hire folks, they begin to negotiate the standard to win over their employees emotionally. Never, ever negotiate a standard. In the long run your people will lose respect for you as the employer. Employees frequently need to be challenged and they deserve to have high standards. Your customers deserve the same.

Recognition- this may seem simple, however it is not done nearly enough. Valhalla believes a worst case scenario would be recognizing once a day. Recognition is NOT gift cards, time off, celebrations. Recognition is catching people in a behavioral act doing it right. Then providing feedback.

Feedback- your team deserves to hear what is correct and incorrect from you regularly. Team members want to know they are doing it right. Or what they need to do to improve. If they are not growing they are more likely leave.

One on one- this is just a piece of Valhalla's "Effective Manager Calendar," but its the most important. Your team members deserve their time with you. Time discuss successes, concerns, personal life, etc. It is another great tool for evaluating progression. This is where they need to hear about how they are progressing in their career. They need vision and goals to obtain.

Promotions- Promote good results, good behavior and good skills. Tenure means absolutely nothing. If tenure is your value I wouldn't recommend anyone work for you, nor would I patron your business. I want the best service every time! Setting performance as your standard encourages better performance.

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Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Gaining Commitment From Employees

Gaining a commitment

  • Determine team goals
  • Brain storm appropriate tasks/behaviors
  • Assign time frames
  • Solicit employee regularly on progress
  • Schedule follow up

I have to opportunity to observe so many managers talk to their staffs and there are many reasons their employees don't commit to action. I also get to hear all the time from managers, "my employees just don't care about their work!" Or, "they just don't do what they know they are supposed to do?" There are so many reasons for this, but almost all the reasons are at the fault of the manager. Team members want to do well, they want to make their goals and they want to be recognized when they do. One effectiveness skill that could amplify a managers results today would be working on gaining a commitment from their team.

Determine team goals! This may sound easy, but can be difficult. In your next team meeting solicit your team for something they would like to accomplish over a period of time. Valhalla recommends at least a goal that requires a month to achieve, but can be longer. Once the team has something they are trying to achieve, it will be easier to have behaviors and tasks to deliver the required results.

Work with your employee to determine what their role looks like to achieve the team goals. A one on one is a great place for this. Details are important here. i.e. Every time a customer walks into our location I will say, "welcome, have you visited us before?" Depending on the answer I will then say, "great I am glad you have been here before, let me tell you about a special we have for returning customers!"

Assign a time frame, ensure you the manager set the bar on time line. It is inappropriate for your employee to ever guess when you want a particular task completed.

Solicit your employee regularly through out the task on what they are learning. Ask, "What things are you learning so far?" This is where they will critique their own work.

Schedule follow up, this is the most important to ensure anything gets done. Schedule frequent follow up to ask for progress. This ensures something does not get missed or skipped along the way. This also presents a forum for your employee to solicit your feedback and obtain your guidance.


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Thursday, April 2, 2009

Cross Sell, Expand Your Services




Cross Sell, Expand Your Services
  • Consider Service Industry
  • Apply with your product

I had the opportunity to discuss someones business the other day and to be honest I had never encountered a business quite like it before. She had a type of pillow which was used to help a woman's skin avoid wrinkling. It was a product I had never heard of? I familiarized myself with her business and realized the pillow was the only piece of the business. One thing we work on with each company is your product is not your business. Your business is your product. Customers need a reason to buy the business. We explored at length what could help increase the sales of her business.

We decided she would put together a aging skin care wellness off-site. We discussed the resources she knew in the business and how to apply it. Here is what she came up with.

  • 3 Day Wellness Trip (she knew a manager of a hotel)
  • Day 1-Skin Care (her product and a make up expert)
  • Day 2-Group therapy (her best friend the psychiatrist)
  • Day 3-Yoga (her yoga instructor)

When we were done with the conversation, she realized how much a product like hers lead itself to other opportunities to increase revenue by cross selling service and more importantly selling her product.


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Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Valhalla's Effective Manager Calendar

Attached is my sample calendar to help any successful manager have the forums to communicate with their teams. I have followed this model with every team I have worked with and had beyond extraordinary results!

Effectivemanagercalendar.doc

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Valhalla's Management Expectations -- Feedback Moments

Valhalla's Management Expectations -- Feedback Moments

Who:
  • Catch team members doing things right
  • 5:1 Rule five positive feedback sessions to every one developmental
  • Identify specific behaviors
  • Feedback immediately after behavior

Where:
  • Entire location

When:
  • Daily
  • Schedule specific time

Why:
  • Encourages team to repeat good behaviors
  • Team member develops
  • Conveys to team managements willingness to get hands dirty
  • Opportunity for manager to model good behavior
    • Team sees behaviors done correctly

How:
  • Role play, practice doing things right
  • Feedback
    • Identify specific behavior observed
    • Associate it with a skill
    • Display how it impacted the team or customer
      • i.e., "When you followed up with that customer and remembered their upcoming vacation, you displayed again how important it is to you to do the right thing for your customers. Thank you for staying so disciplined to the sales process you have earned another lifetime customer! At this rate our team will have a great chance to meet our goal today. Thanks to you!"

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Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Valhalla's Management Expectations -- Team Meetings

Valhalla's Management Expectations -- Team Meetings

Who:
  • Entire team

What:
  • Team builder
  • Share vision
  • Turn in calendar for the week
  • Brain storm around business priorities
  • Review team scoreboard
  • Recognize, recognize, recognize
  • Training
  • Internal customer presentations

Where:
  • Conference room (team should be sitting)

When:
  • Weekly
  • One hour

Why:
  • Stay abreast to internal issues
  • Direct communication with the entire team
  • Create team buy in
  • Better team relationships
  • More educated teams

How:
  • Team builder for the first 5-10 minutes to engage team
  • What does the our vision mean to you?
  • What are the team goals, and how will our priorities get us there?
  • Highlight substantial accomplishments
  • Have team members recognize each other for the last 10 minutes

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Valhalla's Management Expectations -- Daily Exits

Valhalla's Management Expectations -- Daily Exits

Who:
  • Direct reports only

What:
  • Discuss what was accomplished for the day
  • Discuss the days learning
  • Review high impact priorities
  • Review scorecard
  • Follow up on Daily Kick Start commitments
  • Recognize specific behaviors

Where:
  • Area large enough to have all your direct reports

When:
  • Daily
  • 15 minutes

Why:
  • Team learns from each other
  • Increased accountability
  • More urgency from your team
  • Develops consistency which transfers to your customers
  • Reinforces the importance of the day's activities

How:
  • Ask
    • Based on your learning today what changes would you make?
  • Follow up
    • i.e., you talked about scheduling three appointments this morning. How did that go? What did you learn?
    • i.e., Paul you mentioned you needed three more presentations for next week. Where are you with your goal?
  • Celebrate
    • i.e., Kelly you surpassed your goals again for the third day in a row! What is working so well for you?

NOTE: The daily exit is critical to the management process, but cannot be the only activity. The Daily Kick Start is critical to making your Daily Exit effective

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Valhalla's Management Expectations -- One on One

Valhalla's Management Expectations -- One on One

Who:
  • All direct reports

What:
  • 10 Minutes about them
    • What do you wanna talk about in your 1:1?
    • Recognize specifics
  • 10 Minutes for you
    • Scorecard
    • Specific projects
    • etc.
  • 10 Minutes development
    • Work on specific skill development
    • Career progression

Where:
  • Private place on-site! (never off-site)

When:
  • Weekly (same time if possible)
  • 30 minutes

Why:
  • Removes lack of communication as a reason for failure
  • Prevent reactionary management
    • Solving crisis after the fact
  • Communication forum to keep goals at the forefront
  • Give employees the time they deserve
  • Anticipate unscheduled time off from your employees
  • Acknowledge what motivates your employees
  • Develop strong relationships with your direct reports

How:
  • What is your primary motivation for getting up in the morning?
  • Spiral for each employee
  • Talk about what you have been working on?
  • Talk about your scorecard?
  • What updates do you have....?
  • What insights do you have on the recent changes implemented?
  • What challenges are you facing?

NOTE: The one on one is the primary coaching protocol in Valhalla's process. Without this fundamental coaching expectation the rest of the coaching expectations are not nearly as effective.

www.valhallabizsolutions.com


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