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Category Archives: Business and Sales
Managers: Do You Have The Right Stuff?
What is the difference between a manager and a leader? The term is used interchangeably in most circles of discussion. Steven R. Covey said that managers manage things and leaders lead people. Managers manage budgets, time lines, and projects. Leaders lead people (Covey, 1999).
Most research conducted on leadership focuses on the positive traits and skills of leaders and managers. Research provides evidence that there is a dark side of leadership. Consider these statistics in order to gain an appreciation for the perception that most employees have toward their managers.
Posted in Awareness, Business and Sales, Coaching, Communication, Leadership, Managment
Tagged IQ vs EQ, Leadership, manager vs. leader
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How Much Power is too Much Power
When the United States of America first organized herself into a country she ratified the Articles of Confederation. The document gave most of the power to the states and left very little with the Federal government. As tantalizing as that sounds in 2012, it crippled John Adams’ negotiations with Great Britain on reducing import taxes from America. It wasn’t until the Constitution was ratified in 1789 that teeth were given to our Federal government.
Posted in Business and Sales, Communication, Government
Tagged leaders, managers, organizational behavior, power politics
1 Comment
What happens if your Boss has more IQ than EQ?
Have you ever worked for a boss who was brilliant in her field of expertise but totally inept as a boss? How about someone who is incredible as a parent but dismal as a spouse? The irony of the situation is the two are not mutually exclusive. One does not exist without the other. Let’s say you work in the accounting department and your boss is the company’s finest accountant but the world’s worst boss.
One of two things must happen by those who promoted the company’s finest accountant, either fire the manager and retain the accountant or train the accountant to be a manager. In other words, teach her some social and leadership skills also known as EQ (emotional intelligence).
Posted in Awareness, Business and Sales, Coaching, Communication
Tagged IQ vs EQ, leaders, managers
1 Comment
You Can Lead A Horse To Water…
Everybody Is In Sales
Let’s say you’re the sales manager of your company. If you are not, then let’s say you’re a parent of a child. If not, let’s say you are married or in a serious relationship. It wouldn’t matter if you were an engineer and think you are above this you are still in sales.
Let’s define sales to assure we have clarity. To transact a sale means you are getting money or some other compensation for a product or service.
Posted in Business and Sales, Communication
Tagged Effective Communication, prospecting, Sales Training
6 Comments
Are Managers Change Agents
Thinking of the position of managers as change agents fogs my lenses until I put the definition of manager in context. I define a manager as ‘almost a leader.’ A leader is like a grape and a manager is like the raisin. There are six primary zones of competency in leadership and a manager is usually competent in one (Perrin, 2010). Managers, according to this model, make and execute plans. They follow a bigger vision than their own and the changes they initiate are usually at the behest of another. Managers organize other’s work and focus on predictable results.
Dysfunctional Competition and Conflict
Both competition and conflict are semantically multidimensional. To some being competitive means you win at all costs. It’s a zero-sum game and winning is the only alternative. Areas such as contract negotiations between big business and labor, elongated divorces, and cooking the books are dysfunctional competition.
Sporting events, market share, and fundraising are competitive and require cooperation by the opponent for growth and success. There are Rules of Engagement that both sides respect and adhere to. This is healthy competition.
Posted in Awareness, Business and Sales, Communication
Tagged competition, Conflict, Contention
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Conflict – Trust – Commitment
Recent studies confirm the importance of building trust within the space you operate. Trust is the antecedent to commitment. They share common ground and commitment leads to motivation, and motivation leads to productivity. As a manager you can’t afford to operate without trust in today’s business climate. As an aspiring business professional seeking to climb to corporate ladder, the zero-sum days of upward movement at the expense of your fellow employees is over.
You can call it a return to civility, but in reality it’s a return to cooperative competition, the original design behind capitalism.
Posted in Business and Sales, Communication
Tagged commitment trust theory, conflict resolution
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What Is Conflict?
Multiple research studies show how positive conflict, for example, a devil’s advocate placed into the group as a confederate to stir up more discussion, is painful to those in the group. When given the opportunity, the confederate is voted out of the group in 100 percent of the studies even though the presence of the contrarian point of view improves productivity, growth, and creativity.
Further research uncovered the word contention as a cousin to conflict. The original Hebrew word for contention is to brawl, debate, and contend. It is an adversarial relationship. Contention is to make it personal.
Dysfunctional Behavior in the Office
Have you ever had a co-worker backbite you at work? How does it feel when someone undermines you with the boss or with others in your department? What kind of a person engages in power politics at work? By definition this is called conflict, which is a dysfunctional outcome resulting from poor communication.
Traditionalists in Organizational Psychology take the approach of avoidance behavior as a way to resolve such deviant behavior. It is also how most people handle conflict, whether at work or at home.
Posted in Awareness, Business and Sales, Communication
Tagged backbiting at the office, Conflict, trust in the office
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How to get the Horse to Drink
A study conducted in 1992 indicates that the days of predatory business practices are over. Business ethicists stress that competition needs cooperation. Morgan and Hunt conducted a study in 1994 and described trust as being central to success replacing power. In 2000, K. A. Karl noted that trust is at an all-time low. Further statistics show that 56 percent of nonmanagement employees viewed a lack of trust as a problem in their company.
More than half the workhorses in the service and manufacturing sectors lack trust in their company. Is it because they are being led to the watering hole by power mongers (force) who want them to drink the Kool-Aid against their will?