Making our Mission Possible

Creating an emotional connection

Last week I was chairing a conference of businesswomen in Somerset.  It was hard work, making sure that all the slides were sorted for speakers, making sure the programme ran to time, and introducing everyone appropriately.

Luckily I got to hear a fantastic speaker, Craig Goldblatt.  He teaches people all over Europe his sales techniques and what he talked about made great sense to me- no matter what you are selling you need to make an emotional connection with your buyer to satisfy one of the core emotional needs that human beings have:

1. Certainty
2. Risk
3. Significance
4. Connection
5. Growth
6. Giving

He used the example of the Cadburys Milk Tray adverts where the man flew in from wherever to bring you the box of chocolates, and asked us to consider which emotional needs it met?

So why not review the way you sell your product or service today to see if it "hits the spot"!

Rugby clubs are similar to small businesses

This week I have been busy attending the launch events for the RFU Leadership Academy for leaders within Community Rugby Clubs.  It's a programme designed to develop both today's and tomorrow's leaders because, similar to small business, we all know that the quality of an organisation is highly linked to the quality of its leadership.

Even though clubs are run by volunteers they face similar issues to those of small business owner; how to create a vision and strategy for the long term, motivating people and managing change.  Sir Clive Woodward had some twelve useful leadership lessons for rugby teams and it also applies to leaders of clubs and small businesses:

(Adapted from The Sunday Times June 19, 2005)

1. Good leadership is transferable across disciplines. If you have proved that you can successfully manage a team or an organisation in one industry, the chances are that you would fare equally well in another
2. Passion is all. No manager will succeed without it.If you’re ambitious, don’t stay in a job just for the money or status. You will never excel unless you do what you want to do rather than what you feel you ought to do
3. Enjoyment is a business term. While strategy, planning and organisation are all necessary, don’t lose sight of the fact that there are human beings who volunteer with you who won’t perform unless they enjoy their task. Always challenge your people with new ways of doing things, new ideas. Always make them feel that they are progressing as individuals
4. Only hire those who pass the ‘24-hour plane journey’ test. To maintain your level of enjoyment, you need the right people around you. When you recruit, don’t just look at the CV. Would you want that person with you day in, day out, for years?
5. Achieve success through setbacks, and build on success. Work hard to learn the lessons of victory and success. Don’t dwell on failure. Focus on the positive.
6. Remove all ‘energy sappers. Too much nonsense is written about motivation. You need to get the right people, all of them committed to achieve. If there are those who don’t share that commitment, move swiftly to turn them round. If their attitude doesn’t improve, get them out before the entire working atmosphere is tainted irreparably
7. Establish ‘teamship’ rules at the outset. When you start managing any team of people, sit down with them and thrash out a set of standards and rules by which everyone has to abide. Once you get this buy-in, everyone can concentrate on moving the business forward without fear of disruption
8. Make use of the creativity of everyone in your organisation. Intelligence and fresh thinking are not the preserve of senior executives and MBA graduates. If you neglect to consult the grass roots, you might lose out on ideas which could change your business
9. For a fresh view, go outside your industry. People who work in the same industry tend to end up thinking the same. If you genuinely want new ideas, don’t forget to consult people you respect who have never worked in your industry
10. Never follow tradition for its own sake. ‘That’s the way we do things here.’ You’re not ever going to beat the competition with that sort of complacency. Look at absolutely everything your team or club does and then ask yourself honestly, ‘Should we really still do it this way?’
11. Don’t neglect any detail. It could make all the difference. Competition can be fierce. What then differentiates the best from the also-rans? It’s those one per cents, the ‘critical non-essentials’
12. Understand your team, but don’t get too close. Your relationship with your team should be a delicate balancing act. Get to know something about their lives outside work so that you can understand them better and so that they feel part of a team where people care. But never get too close. That might compromise you. 

Did you know....

I came across a list of facts about women, enterprise and equality the other day which made me think that as women, we still have a long way to go to achieve equality....

• Women's enterprise contributes an estimated £60 billion annually to the gross value added to the UK economy
• According to BERR, there are 3.7 million self employed people in UK and 27% are women
• Self employed men who work full time have a mean total annual income of around £31,000. It is £21,000 for self employed women who work full time
• 7% of start ups in England and Wales are by entrepreneurs under 25 years old
• Women of mixed ethnicity are two and a half times more entrepreneurial than white women
• 34.4% of public appointments are held by women
• 9.6% of Judges are women
• It will take, at the present rate, 73 years to achieve an equal number of female directors of FTSE 100 companies, and 200 years to achieve an equal number of female MPs
• Female millionaires in UK are predicted to outnumber male millionaires by 2020
• Childcare costs are 33% of average earnings
• There is a shortage of registered childcare places - there are only places for 25% of children under 8 years old.

Time to listen and think

It's been a whirlwind week so far and I have just come back from Dublin where I was speaking at the Institute of Business Analysis and Consulting Annual conference.  The theme was on the evolving role of the analyst and one of the research reports highlighted that two of the top five skills needed by analysts were communication and listening skills.

I had the morning to listen to some great keynote speakers and take some time to think about how their messages resonated with our business.  Sometimes it really useful to make space to reflect and listen to people who are completely outside of your business sector.  You can glean new ideas that you never thought of.  

Then at lunchtime, I sat down next to a lady and we started chatting.  After about 20 minutes we realised that we both ran women's networking groups so had lots in common.  We also reflected that if we had only had 3 minutes of "speed networking" we might never have made that connection.  As a result she is going to write an article on her perspective of women's networking in Dublin for our newsletter.So take time to listen to someone that you don' normally talk to, and you might learn some amazing things!

Interview for the Entrepreneurial Show

Listen to the latest podcast interview where I explain why only the adventurous will succeed in business.

Arthur Krebbers interviews me for the Entrepreneurial Show

Download podcast interview (mp3 format)

Learning from the other side of the table

This week we carried out our interviews for our Managing Director role.  It was an insightful experience for me for it felt as much like we were making a business pitch to the potential candidates as it was them sussing us out to see if they would like to work with our company.  And what comes through from both sides of the table are values versus written communication - do you "do" what you say you do?

It reminded me of the initial coaching session I have with clients when I always notice if their non verbal communication matches the stated goals for the session.  If there is a mismatch a bit of detective work is always required to get to the "real issue" and its nearly always related to values and beliefs.

This was just the same at the interviews - I am sure our values shone through and hopefully matched up to our stated aims, and it was the same for the candidates.  The quicker I can connect with someone at that meaningful level, the easier it is to work together. So I was reminded that authenticity is what counts....and lasts....in good working relationships.....