Actionable Books

Are you counting the raw material?

Reading Branson’s latest, Screw Business As Usual, I learned a fascinating truth – the average 10lb laptop requires a staggering 40,000 lbs of raw material to produce.

While the environmental issues here are certainly worth addressing, I’ll leave that discussion to greater minds.

What I want to focus on here is the typically-forgotten work of pulling together the raw materials to build something in the first place.  If we think about building a laptop, we might think of the transistors, the casing, the screen and the peripheral ports.  But, of course, each of those components has their own list of sub-components, as does each sub-component have it’s own sub-sub-components, and so on.

I mention this, because I was recently asked for a free subscription to Actionable Workshops.  When I gently refused, offering a discount instead, the response came quick, “Why not?  It’s a digital subscription! It’s not like it costs you anything.”  Which, if you look at it simply from the “laptop” perspective, is accurate.  But what about the components?  The sub-components and the sub-sub-components?

Pablo Picasso understood this concept.  (You may have read this before)

The story goes that Picasso was sitting in a Paris café when an admirer approached and asked if he would do a quick sketch on a paper napkin. Picasso politely agreed, swiftly executed the work, and handed back the napkin — but not before asking for a rather significant amount of money. The admirer was shocked: “How can you ask for so much? It took you a minute to draw this!” “No”, Picasso replied, “It took me 40 years”

Never under value yourself or your services simply because you have a clean looking offering.  There’s value in simplicity.  Value it.  (As a supplier and as a consumer)

Readers’ Choice – February

We’ve narrowed down the best books that our community is talking about for our February Readers’ Choice poll to the following titles listed below. Read what they’re all about, and then cast your vote here. Voting concludes on Monday, February 20, 2012 at 11.59PM EST.

1. WorkQuake: Making the Seismic Shift to a “Knowledge Economy” by Paul Glover

With his distinctive, direct and oft-humorous approach, “recovering attorney” and long-time business and executive coach Paul Glover bares his knuckles to present 76 strategies and tips to thrive in the Knowledge Economy. This no-nonsense advice, gleaned from 25 years of helping businesses nationwide prosper, and his popular Bottom Line and Morning Mantra newsletters, carries you through the impact of the recent WorkQuake – the Industrial Economy’s final meltdown.

2. Confessions of a Reformed Control Freak by B.R. Smith

Managers aren’t born – they’re made. Communicating and interacting more effectively with people is a learned behaviour. I wrote this book in the hope that managers, team leaders and supervisors are able to learn from my sins. And trust me – in my 40+ year career as an award-winning entrepreneur and general manager for one of Canada’s best managed and most profitable companies, I’ve committed each one of these sins at one time or another.

“The Top Ten Sins Most Managers Make & How to Avoid Them” are woven into the ten chapters of this book. I know from my own experiences what works – and more importantly – what doesn’t work. If I knew then what I know now, there is no question I would have managed differently. After reading this book you will manage differently too.

Managing today is about attitude – not aptitude. You don’t need to be the smartest person in the room to be the most effective manager in the room. Today’s manager needs to do three things very well. They need to be able to communicate, educate and delegate. This book will teach you how to develop a 21st Century management style, improve individual and team performance, create lasting relationships and manage conflict, problem solve and deal with stressful situations better. And most importantly, it will teach you how to communicate and interact more effectively with clients and colleagues.

3. Go For No! Yes is the Destination, No is How You Get There by Richard Fenton and Andrea Waltz

In a world inundated with sales books on getting to yes, this book recommends just the opposite, focusing on how increasing your failure rate can greatly accelerate your movement toward ultimate success. Go for No! chronicles four days in the life of fictional character Eric Bratton, a call reluctant copier salesman who wakes up one morning to find himself in a strange house with no idea of how he got there. But this house doesn t belong to just anyone! It belongs to him… a wildly successful, ten years in the future version of the person he could become if he learns to overcome his self-limiting beliefs and overcome his fear of failure. Through the dialogue of the two main characters the authors have fashioned an entertaining story to present the key concepts essential to sales success. Readers learn… …What it takes to outperform 92% of the world s salespeople …That failing and failure are two very different things … Why it s important to celebrate success and failure … How to get past failures quickly and move on …That the most empowering word in the world is not yes… it s NO! Written to be intentionally short and to the point, Go for No! is a quick, fun read with valuable lessons that can change the way you think, sell, and live!

4. Zero Time Selling: 10 Essential Steps To Accelerate Every Company’s Sales by Andy Paul

Zero-Time Selling describes the 10 essential sales practices that will enable you to:

Just Listen Faster

I speak very quickly.  All my life, I’ve been asked by audiences to “slow down”.  I have to repeat myself constantly.

An easy solution to this is just to have everyone else just listen faster.  That’d be better, wouldn’t it?  I could cover the same information in the same time, they’d be able to use their time more efficiently, and I wouldn’t need to change my style.

Of course, that’s a ridiculous request.  People don’t change the way they engage with the world simply because you want them to.

So why do we get frustrated by “stupid clients who can’t figure out our systems”, “Stubborn employees who refuse to see it my way”, or “the boss who just won’t listen?”

The onus is on you.  If you’re not being heard, if you’re not being understood, it’s up to you to change the way in which you’re expressing yourself.  That, or find a different audience.  As soon as it’s “all their fault”, you’re sunk.

Lead ‘em like they don’t get paid

or, rather, like they don’t get a salary.

I had the distinct pleasure of learning leadership in the Direct Sales world.  For those unfamiliar with the industry, it may surprise you to learn that most, if not all of the estimated 8 million people who work in Direct Sales in North America work as “independent contractors”, meaning, that they’re not salaried.  Their income is directly tied to their results.  No ceiling.  No floor.  As a result of this unique compensation structure, Direct Sales is certainly not for everyone.  But today I’m not talking about what it is to be a consultant in the Direct Sales world, I’m talking about what it is to be a leader.

Think about this – when you lead a team of independent contractors, you don’t have the (dubious) fallback of being able to say, “Do it.  It’s your job.”  You can’t force people to do anything.  If they don’t want to show up for meetings, they don’t have to.  If they don’t want to work during the peak seasons, they don’t have to.  They have almost complete freedom over how and when they work their business.  But, as a leader, your compensation is also completely tied to your team’s performance.  Which makes for a unique situation.

How do you motivate your team to work, when you don’t have the usual management fallbacks of “Do it because it’s your job?”

Let me tell you:

1.  You provide time sensitive incentives. (Sell X in timeframe Y, win a trip)

2.  You recognize top performers like crazy.  (in newsletters, at conferences, at weekly meetings, etc.)

3.  You work to understand them what their goals are, and then show them what level of activity is required to achieve them.

4.  You identify identify potential leaders in your group, tell them such, and ask them to step up.

5.  You demonstrate that you care.  About them first, yourself second.

I would suggest that the best managed companies in the world are already doing these things, regardless of what their peoples’ compensation structure looks like.  I would suggest that while salaries are an important aspect of an employee’s “compensation package”, it’s no longer enough to get the most out of your people.  Employees want more.  I’ve seen case after case where managers who utilize some of the tactics above see their teams rise to new levels of performance.  And the best part?  The best part is that 4 out of 5 of the best practices listed above are completely free.  They just take a little effort and a little caring on your end.  You can do that.

Re-framing

In this week’s newsletter we explored Gamestorming and No Problem; two books designed explicitly to help you navigate the murky waters of complex business challenges.

In reviewing the two books, I started thinking about the power of re-framing; that is, looking through existing problems in a new light.

If you’ve ever played the game Boggle, you know that one of the easiest ways to find new words on the board is to turn the board; to look at it from a new angle.  What’s true in game is often true in life.

If you have a nagging problem that’s been hanging around for a while, perhaps it’s time to turn the board.  Think through questions like,

-  Where’d the problem come from?
-  What’s it actually holding us back from?  Is there another way to accomplish the same objective?
-  If the problem was permanent (as in, here for good), what would we do instead?
-  How would I handle the problem if I was Donald Trump?  Mother Teresa?  Kanye West?
-  Problems often exist because of a lack (or a perceived lack).  Does this problem exist because of lack of money?  time?  knowledge?  What’s another way I could overcome the lack?

Share the problem with a friend.  Share the problem with a stranger.  Look for new takes on it.

Bottom line – stay curious.  Look with fresh eyes, and think of the problem as something interesting, rather than something nagging.  Have fun!