Remember Me?

There is a trend that is apparent and abounding and it is the demand for YOUR (yes, you) attention.  I find the process intriguing and intrusive, yet logical and expected.

I know that I am a revenue source for many many people/companies.  I spend most of my day working on getting revenue from others so that I can take home a part of that revenue and then decide where I am going to spend that revenue on others (obviously, not just to spend it, but in an exchange – no, not that kind of exchange – whatever).

Junk mail was the start of this clear demand from my attention.  Not for me necessarily, like somebody want to date me in high school, but for my money.  The demand isn’t to date my money either, because once it is committed, it does not return.  It is married, never to produce children for me.

So, with demand expanding, to surveys, emails, pop-ups, luncheons, webinars, conference calls, call blasts, and more, I am wondering what other ways will be thought of to get me to look, remember and then act positively to the push or pull toward a product?

To be in business, you must learn, especially if you are in the beginning stages to get in front of people so they remember you.  This obviously has a premise that they know you in order to remember you.  So, assuming that they know you already, there is tremendous value in helping people remember what you do.

For instance, if you are a jewelry salesperson.  You have a clientele who have purchased from you and you have those

Be A Cat

people whom you have introduced your products to.  If you leave your interaction with that person to just what you “did” with them, you have failed at retaining them.  Customers are not likely to seek you out and find you because they are met with so many other offers that come to them.  You need to repeatedly return to them.

Don’t be the slobbering dog, jumping up on them so they will buy from you.  Be the pristine cat, reminding them you are here and worth paying attention too.

Good luck.

Dealing With Disciplining Employees

The dreaded talk is avoided continuously, for as long as possible for most mangers or supervisors. The delay is

How To Manage The Rough Talk With An Employee

understandable, mostly because the setting is awkward. Here is this person that you try to get along with, maybe you do get along with them, and now you are in a situation where you have get the to be different.

Will they be defensive? How will I respond?

Will they be angry? How will I respond?

Will they disassociate? How can I manage that?

Will their performance decrease as a result and will this lead to repeated corrective action updates?

The emotions of dealing with discipline almost self-impose a feeling like the person delivering the message is a bad person and the receive is a victim. This backwards feeling is compounded by delay.

Before addressing how to manage the situation, the first rule in dealing with a sensitive situation like disciplining an employee is to not delay. Waiting for days to pass while you struggle with the “how” of doing this work builds that problem and allows the silence to fester into a bigger problem.

Think of the delay like reading a newspaper. If you read an article in the paper that is a day old, the information may be very relevant to you and your situation. However, if you were to pick up a paper from a month ago, or longer, although the information may still have some meaning, the potency of the message is lost in time.

Dealing with a situation where actions need to change, the freshest information is the best information and evidence for change. Poor attendance or bad preparation from a month ago, does not have nearly the emotional impact in delivery as does evidence from yesterday or two days ago.

Now, the emotional delivery. The emotion of any message has its place, especially if you are searching for a best practices environment, where a level of autonomy is encouraged in order to develop a highest level of personal performance. Delivering any bad news is best left to a black and white delivery.

“John, your attendance is becoming a challenge for me to ensure that all your responsibilities are done and done well. Yesterday was the 3rd time you showed up 30 minutes late for work. I have these time cards/punches. Are they correct?”

Allowing the employee to see the objective results of his or her actions is the bad news and essentially they tell themselves because when you use an objective tool, your opinion and role is to identify the results. The employee typically responds by acknowledging that the information is accurate.

This doesn’t mean that the employee won’t try to rationalize their situation. It is human nature to do so. We all do this whenever we have done something that may not be inline with expectations. We feel better this way.

For this situation, your goal is not to inform them of the problem. You have to do this in order to get to your goal of having them correct the behavior that leads to the problem. In another article we will discuss how to help them self discover, which is always the very best way to achieve immediate change.

Mapping out the process is to prepare the evidence of the poor performance, gather this from reports and

Prepare The Processing With Mapping Your Conversation

non-objective tools. Gather information from others as needed, as many angles as you can, ensuring that your remove “opinion” from what is actually the problem. From here, plan out the process of identifying we have an issue and presenting the reports.

Allow the person at this point to respond. For every situation, no matter how black and white the case may be, if you remove the opportunity for the employee to respond and rationalize, you may miss a legitimate response that allows you to see the issue in a different light.

Most agent responses do not change the outcome of the meeting, which is to change a behavior. It may mean that the outcome isn’t as severe as it seemed to be and that coaching the employee on a way to improve the outcome which has caused the issue, is where you want to take the discussion.

Nevertheless, achieving the end result of the meeting should always be in mind. You want the employee to change/improve their actions through understanding the problem.

Taking a systematic approach allow yous to feel less emotional and allow your to enter the meeting with the goal of partnering with the employee on how you can assist them in the change. Ultimately, your support allows a common ground to be achieved. This is the emotional part of the meeting, where you support, you sincerely want to help the employee improve.

Stand Shoulder To Shoulder

This partnership becomes your common ground and allows you to meet more frequently on the topic or correction and allows you both to view it shoulder to shoulder rather than face to face.