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This is the second in a series of five posts on tips and books for managers, and Cydcor Chief People Officer, Jeannie Finkel. In this series, Jeannie recommends the Top Five Books she believes can help you transform your management style and become a better, more effective leader.
Writing well isn’t just a nice talent you can use to impress friends and colleagues. Sure, it can do that as well, but effective writing is much more important than that. Clear, concise writing is essential to be an effective communicator, a skill you must have if you ever hope to succeed in a leadership or management role. The way you write and communicate can mean the difference between getting the job or not, gaining approval for a critical project, earning the confidence of your team or organization, and the ability to explain yourself in cases when your actions are not as well received or understood. Effective writing ability is not just nice, it’s critical. It can directly impact your ability to survive and thrive in the workplace and your future growth potential.
Below, Jeannie Finkel recommends a book she believes any manager must have to help improve writing ability and communication:
Book #2: The Elements of Style
Author: William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White
Short summary: If any aspect of your work involves written communication – beyond texting – and you want the quality of your writing to stand out, this little book will teach you what you need to know to master the core principles of writing clearly. It focuses on the fundamentals, clearly explaining proper usage and composition, and helping explain and address the rules of good writing that are most frequently violated.
This really isn’t a book you “read” per se. Rather, it’s a great reference tool that everyone who aspires to write well, or needs to influence, explain, or inspire would do well to study. It’s less than 100 pages, divided into three segments. The first segment is two chapters which give a set of “rules” for English usage and composition (you’ll remember grammar class in grade school!). Then there’s a terrific section about words and expressions that are most often misused – EVERYONE should review this part. The book ends with a set of 21 tips to keep in mind as you create your own writing style.
What you’ll learn: What you learn from this book really depends on what you need. If you’re newer to business and fresh from writing college papers, you might have to change your style to adapt to the brevity required for business writing, such as reports, PowerPoints, and emails. Find excellent advice to guide you through this transition under the sections entitled “Use definite, specific, concrete language” and “Omit needless words”.
Or, if you’ve been in the business world for some time and now need to or communications for publication, you’ll benefit from reviewing the chapter entitled, “Misused Words and Expressions”. We don’t notice many of these in our everyday conversations with friends, but they really stick out in a written piece!
Dip into the book enough and you’ll experience a true appreciation of the beauty and richness of our language, and realize the professor who wrote the original book truly loved his subject and hoped to pass on the art of communication to future generations.
Why it’s a must read: This is a desk reference I’ve kept with me ever since a rather embarrassing experience with a boss many years ago. I had just been promoted to my first Vice President level assignment, working for someone who had a reputation for being extremely tough. I was a literature major in college, and I thought I wrote pretty well. I wanted to impress him and show I was worthy of the big new job and title, so I wrote a lengthy memo about something I thought he should consider changing. But, I was afraid to be too direct in case he thought I was overstepping. Instead, I made it so indirect and wishy washy that (as I realized later) it was impossible to figure out what I was trying to say.
Thankfully, rather than ripping up what I’d written and leaving it in shreds on my desk, he said nothing. Instead, after lunch, I came back to a little brown paper bag from the bookstore down the street with this book in it, sitting on top of a copy of my memo. I opened it up and looked at the content. My boss had gone so far as to check off the sections he thought I should read, and underline several key sentences in red ink. This was the President of a key business unit who’d taken the time to go out and get this book for me and do this!! After I got over feeling mortified, I rewrote the memo (it was probably two pages shorter) and went in to thank him and make my case, this time much more directly, confidently, and clearly. We went on to be a great team and work together for many years, and we are still good friends today. I credit him, and this book, with setting me on a path to becoming an effective business writer! Maybe it will do the same for you.
Look out for upcoming posts in this series to learn about three more books every manager must have on his or her bookshelf to bolster professional growth and personal development. In case you missed it, don’t forget to read last week’s post about the book 13 Fatal Errors Managers Make and How you can Avoid Them.
To find out more about Cydcor, check us out on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter.
Jeannie Finkel, Chief People Officer at Cydcor, the recognized leader in outsourced sales, has more than twenty-five years of business experience, managing human resources and administration at top firms. Jeannie served for nearly twelve years as a Senior Vice President of Human Resources at Charles Schwab & Co. Jeannie was also Head of Human Resources and Administration for a leading asset management firm, and served as Managing Director, Talent Management Systems and Strategies for a Fortune 100 organization. Jeannie later became a Partner with leading global retained search firm, Heidrick & Struggles. With years of experience managing teams and overseeing organizations, Jeannie is a seasoned expert in management, administration, and leadership.
We all want to love our jobs, and while most of us accept that not every part of our job can be our favorite thing to do, what happens when you start getting bored at work? Does that mean you’re doing something wrong or that your chosen career might not be right for you after all? Not necessarily. While you should never stay at a job you absolutely hate, feeling occasional boredom at work can actually mean that you’re making valuable progress you’re not even aware of.
Make the Most of It Tip: Rather than focusing on the monotony, remind yourself that even if you can’t see the improvements right away, you are getting better at what you do with each repetition.
Make the Most of It Tip: Tell yourself you can check your emails, surf the web, get coffee, or spend ten minutes socializing with coworkers once you’ve finished the assignment in front of you. By giving yourself small rewards to work towards, the strange feeling of only paying attention one thing at a time might not feel so uncomfortable. At the end, you might be surprised to see how much you’ve accomplished, and it may help you enjoy those periods of focus a bit more the next time.
Make the Most of it Tip: Rather than looking for ways to speed things along, take pride in the fact that you’re accurate and thorough. Tell yourself that doing things right is part of your personal brand, and know that it’s that attention to detail that will help you stand out amongst the competition.
Make the Most of it Tip: Use those moments of boredom as opportunities to think through the case you’ll make to management for why you’re ready to move up to a new role. Use the ease with which you do your current tasks as part of your argument. Explain that the job has gotten so easy that you’re confident you could be doing more, and offer to help train your replacement to be as proficient at your current role as you are.
Make the Most of it Tip: When your mind starts to wander, take advantage of those moments by choosing to brainstorm new ideas for your company or ways you can make projects more efficient. In other words, decide to use your daydreams to benefit your company, and you may be surprised how that decision can boost your own career growth as well.
Like most things in life, boredom, in moderation, won’t hurt you, and it could even help you take your career to the next level. Remember that being great at your job may not be fun and exciting every day, but feeling the occasional boredom shouldn’t send you running for the hills either. Realize that even the greatest jobs will have ups and downs, and what may seem like a rough day today could be helping you toward that big win tomorrow.
This is the first in a series of five posts by management expert, Jeannie Finkel. In this series, Jeannie weighs in on the top five books for managers, featuring one book each week.
Being a great manager is a skill that benefits from constant honing and refinement. While some are born with the innate ability to influence others, inspire action, and drive results, most leaders require a great deal of training, practice, and studying to become as effective as they hope to be. There are many incredible management training courses available, but they can be very pricey. Luckily, there is a wealth of information that can help you transform the way you lead and manage your team available for free, from the local library.
Book #1: 13 Fatal Errors Managers Make and How You Can Avoid Them
Author: W. Steven Brown
What it’s all about: Brown draws on his years of experience as a sales and management coach and consultant, working with Fortune 500 companies, to identify the top errors managers tend to make repeatedly, so we can recognize and stop doing them, or better yet, avoid committing them in the first place. The good and somewhat surprising news he shares is that there really aren’t that many – just 13 of them! He describes each one clearly, illuminating why the error gets in the way of achieving our goals as managers, and provides stories, examples, and suggestions to help us understand what the error looks like and how to correct it. He also ends chapters with helpful tools and a workbook section to create an action plan, summarize your key learnings, and think about how you’ll apply them.
What You’ll Learn: Whether you’re a new manager or one who’s been around a long time, there’s something in this little book for everyone. For newer managers, especially if you’ve been promoted from among a group of your former friends and peers, the transition to the role of “boss” and having to hold your friends accountable, can be very tough. For those in this tricky situation, the chapter, “Fatal Error #8: Be a Buddy, Not a Boss,” might really help.
For more experienced managers, who find yourselves wishing you could get your team to be more productive, there are great insights in the chapters “Fatal Error #3: Try to Control Results Instead of Influencing Thinking,” and “Fatal Error #7: Concentrate on Problems Rather than Objectives.” Or, maybe you’ve always been a top performer, and even though you set a high bar for your team, somehow, you know they can do even better. The chapters, “Fatal Error #5: Manage Everyone the Same Way,” and “Fatal Error #12 Recognize Only Top Performers,” could provide some good tips!
Why it’s a Must Read: I bumped into this book soon after it was first published, when I was a young manager. It was a godsend to me, as the firm I worked for did not provide any management training so I had to figure things out for myself. I discovered that I was committing most of these errors, and I quickly realized that the suggestions the author provided actually work. When I applied them to my own role, I became a much better leader of people, in large part because of the simple lessons this book offers.
This is a top management book I revisit every so often, and I recommend it to any new manager who’s just starting their leadership journey, as well as more experienced managers looking to strengthen their leadership skills. It’s really easy to read – you can probably finish it on a cross country plane flight or quiet Sunday afternoon – but the wisdom sticks with you long afterwards!
Look out for more book recommendations from management expert, Jeannie Finkel, as we continue our series on The Top Five Books for Managers. No matter where you are in your career, feeding your student mentality with advice from the top management experts can only aid you in your quest to reach your current and future goals and achieve success.
To find out more about Cydcor, check us out on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter.
Jeannie Finkel, Chief People Officer at Cydcor, the recognized leader in outsourced sales, has more than twenty-five years of business experience, managing human resources and administration at top firms. Jeannie served for nearly twelve years as a Senior Vice President of Human Resources at Charles Schwab & Co. Jeannie was also Head of Human Resources and Administration for a leading asset management firm, and she served as Managing Director, Talent Management Systems and Strategies for a Fortune 100 organization. Jeannie later became a Partner with leading global retained search firm, Heidrick & Struggles. With years of experience managing teams and overseeing organizations, Jeannie is a seasoned expert in management, administration, and leadership.
There are no better examples of leadership than the legacies of our great historical leaders. While they achieved tremendous fame, they did not do so without facing the occasional failure and enduring hardship. As we strive to become better leaders and learn how to inspire others, we would do well to reflect on the greatest leaders from history to see the characteristics, mentality, and habits that allowed these most revered leaders challenge norms, empower the oppressed, galvanize action, and spark change.
Lesson One: Learn from the Past
The best sources for what works in leadership are the lessons of the past. The trials and tribulations of historical leaders, while sometimes on a grander scale than our own lives, can teach us how to succeed or fail. We can learn how to lead effectively from reading about or watching movies on history, and anyone hoping to become a better leader should make a habit of it. Why make your own mistakes when you can benefit from the lessons learned by those who eventually achieved greatness? Study their lives, follow in their footsteps, and apply their leadership approaches as you drive your own team to reach its goals.
Lesson Two: Character Matters
The greatest historical leaders knew that character can often matter even more than ideas when it comes to leading others to find the greatness in themselves. Benjamin Franklin identified Thirteen Critical Virtues necessary for a successful live and vowed to exemplify them. George Washington is admired for his honesty, and Gandhi demonstrated remarkable restraint and self-discipline in his use of non-violent protest to drive change. Whether reading about George Washington, Ben Franklin, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King or Nelson Mandela, their character stood out and earned them respect, built trust with others, and translated to a highly-regarded reputation.
Lesson Three: Take Risks
You must be bold, and you must accept that you will sometimes fail. Failing can be an important stop on route to success. Lincoln lost a number of elections, including the Illinois Senate race in 1858, yet he ran for President in 1860. Washington struggled to win a major battle against the British for years, yet he had the courage to stay the course. Gandhi, King and Mandela were humiliated for many years on their paths toward civil rights and representation. Facing the occasional failure is a sign that you took on challenges, pushed yourself outside of your comfort zone, and it is an opportunity to prove your resilience and willingness to learn from your mistakes.
Lesson Four: You are Not a Victim of Your Circumstances
We can rise above poverty, lack of education, or lack of support to achieve greatness. Charlie Chaplin grew up in the direst circumstances, reminiscent of a Dickens novel, yet he revolutionized silent film. Men and women who had once been slaves and peasants, overcame the odds to become generals, emperors, and queens. While challenges can sometimes feel insurmountable, the stories of remarkable historical leaders prove that even when things seem hopeless, determination, passion, and grit can overcome the odds.
Lesson Five: Self Discipline is a Must
Lincoln had just one year of formal education, but he read constantly to feed his curiosity and continued to expand his knowledge. Franklin devised ways to improve his character by evaluating himself daily, assessing one character trait each day. Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant were relentless in their routines to develop their skills and conditioning. The stories of great leaders of the past up to the present teach that our potential is boundless if we are willing to push ourselves. Achieving greatness as a leader means having the passion and drive to continuously transform yourself and expand your boundaries. Nobody will do that for you. To become a leader that can inspire others and provoke action, you must first be willing to lead yourself.
History is full of incredible stories of leaders who rose above their circumstances, exemplified character, and endured and overcame setbacks on their path to success. By studying their stories and seeking to understand which qualities and actions allowed them to achieve greatness, you can improve your own chances of doing the same. The stories of historical leaders are a goldmine from which I have learned so much about the kind of leader I hope to be.
To find out more about Cydcor, check us out on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter.
Gary Polson is Chief Executive Officer and Chairman at Cydcor, the market leader in outsourced sales. With more than 25 years of business operations experience in accounting, legal and senior management, Gary has propelled Cydcor to unprecedented achievement with clients, culture and philanthropy since 2001. Under his leadership, Cydcor has increased its revenue more than six-fold since 2001 and has been recognized as “…the most respected sales outsourcing company in the world” by Datamonitor and The Black Book of Outsourcing, one of the “Best Places to Work” by the Los Angeles Business Journal for eight consecutive years. Gary’s passion for excellence and never-satisfied approach has led Cydcor to earn both industry and employer recognition. With Gary at its helm, Cydcor has built its reputation on maintaining long term relationships with clients by consistently delivering results and by going above and beyond to help Cydcor’s clients gain market share and grow.
What would have happened if Walt Disney gave up animation after being fired from one of his first jobs? What if J.K. Rowling let depression keep her from picking up a pen? What if Steven Spielberg let self-doubt stop him from making Jaws? While we’ve all heard the expression “overnight success,” but stories of instant fame and wealth are the exception, not the rule. More often than not, the most successful celebrities and entrepreneurs in the world endured at least one, if not a string, of setbacks, failures, and blows to their egos before hitting it big. Remarkably, they all kept at it, and went from failure to fame, achieving success beyond anyone’s expectations, even their own. Had they let those temporary roadblocks hold them back, however, they might have allowed those failures to define them. Most of us will fail at some point in our lives, and we’ll probably do it more than once. But, letting the occasional defeat stop you from pursuing your passion could mean denying yourself the opportunity to achieve more than you ever dreamed possible. Each of these, now famous, celebrities started out just like you.
It’s hard to imagine now that he’s one of the richest and most powerful entrepreneurs in the world, but those who met Gates right after his first company, Traf-O-Data failed in 1980, might not have been too impressed with his business acumen. The company, which he created while he was in his senior year of high school with business partner Paul Allen, seemed like a clever solution for gathering traffic-flow data, except for one problem, they didn’t have any customers. Gates and Allen got so caught up in the technology, they forgot to do any market research. Don’t feel too bad for Gates though, as of September 2017, the Microsoft Corporation cofounder is the richest person in the word, with an estimated net worth of $84.8 billion, according to Wikipedia.
He may be the father of the world’s most beloved animated mouse and the founder of what would grow into a multi-billion-dollar, mega-empire, but as a young cartoonist, not everyone could see his potential. In 1919, the Kansas City Star newspaper fired Disney because, according to his editor, he “lacked imagination and had no good ideas.” Lucky for Disney, his creative drought would eventually end, allowing him to go from failure to fame after coming up with a few good ideas that just happened to change entertainment forever, including Mickey Mouse, the multi-plane camera, and Disneyland. This one-time labeled, “creative dunce” also holds the record for most Academy Awards as a film producer.
He might be the most recognizable and best-know scientific genius of all time, but as a child, Albert Einstein was so far behind developmentally, that teachers were concerned he might have been mentally disabled. The Nobel-prize-winning physicist didn’t speak until he was four years old and didn’t read until he was seven. He would later be expelled from one school and refused admittance to another one in the years before he took the physics world by storm.
She may be mom to the world’s favorite boy wizard, but before that, Rowling was a broke mom. Recently divorced, on welfare, and clinically depressed, she struggled for five years to complete the first Harry Potter book, writing while her new baby napped. The book was rejected twelve times before finding a publisher, and the rest is history. Fighting her way from failure to fame, today, J.K. Rowling is wealthiest author of all time, and one of the richest women in the world.
While women all over the world fantasize about their dream wedding, themselves picture-perfect in a designer, Vera Wang gown, Wang herself dreamed of representing the United States as part of the 1968 US Olympic figure-skating team. But, after years of intense training, she failed to make the team. Later, after serving 15 years as a senior editor at Vogue magazine, she was overlooked when it came time to name the magazine’s new editor-in-chief. It wasn’t until she was 40 years old that she began her designing career, and the rest is history. Today, Vera Wang’s brand is worth over $1 billion, and the average Vera Wang wedding gown can sell for upwards of $13,000.
Before becoming the master of suspense he is today, Stephen King had more than a little trouble getting his writing career off the ground. A few publishers apparently thought Kings first novel, Carrie, wasn’t up to par – 30 to be exact. King got so fed up with the constant string of rejections that he threw the manuscript for Carrie in the trash. Lucky for horror fans around the world, King’s wife, confident in her husband’s talent, retrieved the book and encouraged him to keep going. Eventually, the writer would discover that one or two people were actually interested in what he had to say; King has published more than 50 novels and has sold more than 350 million copies of his books. His work has also been transformed into dozens of award winning movies and series including The Shining, The Shawshank Redemption, Misery, and the story he, himself, once trashed, Carrie.
Jaws. E.T. Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Jurassic Park. They’re probably some of your favorites, and you’re not alone. Steven Spielberg’s movies include some of the highest grossing blockbusters of all time. In fact, he is said to have invented the concept of summer blockbuster with the release of Jaws, for the first time, creating the kind of fan fervor, and lines around the block, we often see today. He’s won multiple academy awards, and he is possibly the most recognizable film director in the world. As a young, aspiring director and film student, however, Spielberg was rejected from USC’s top-ranked film school three times, because of his mediocre grades. Don’t feel too bad for poor Steven though, the school would eventually award him an honorary degree in 1994, after making some generous donations, that most likely didn’t put a dent in his $3 billion estimated net worth.
The next time someone tells you to give up, calls you untalented, or rejects your idea, remember you know best what you are capable of. Take your failures in stride and realize that each one is just bringing you one step closer to your destiny. You can become your own success story. Don’t give up on you dreams, Instead, use those naysayers to fuel your desire to persevere and make your dreams a reality. Give it everything you’ve got, and remember that today you might feel like a failure, but the only way you truly fail is by giving up. Brush yourself off, stay committed, and live to fight another day, and you might be surprised what you can achieve.
There’s the approach. Then the smile of recognition. The beginning of a friendly greeting. Then…a blank. For budding business relationships, there’s nothing quite like that awkward feeling that accompanies a moment of forgetfulness. Remembering people’s names is something that sets relationships on the right path and sets you apart from the crowd. Hone your craft with the help of these five tips for remembering names.
You never know what a new relationship can lead to. Treat each meeting like it could be the beginning of something great. Approach each new interaction with the mindset that it might have an impact on your future. Remember that the conversation you are having and the person you are meeting are important—and that this relationship could turn out to be more significant than you know. With this attitude as your starting point, you will naturally place a higher priority on remembering people’s names.
When meeting new people, remembering names can come down to one simple act: really listening. It may sound obvious, but in the busy reality of our lives, giving our full attention might not always be so easy. When you’re meeting someone, cast aside other tasks and focus on the interaction that’s right in front of you. Instead of thinking about the next thing you’re going to say, focus on the person’s name as they’re saying it to you. If you happen to miss it the first time around, don’t fake it. Instead, show them the importance of your conversation by apologizing and asking to hear it again.
A simple tip for remembering names is using it immediately in conversation. Perhaps the easiest way to accomplish this is to repeat it back to them right away, saying something like, “Nice to meet you, Gail.” Another possible tactic is to ask them which form of their name they prefer. Asking if it’s Dave or David builds in another ordinary repetition of their name to help you remember. After this, using their name naturally—that is, occasionally—in the rest of your conversation will help to make it stick in your mind even more. Just be careful not to overdo it, or you could begin to sound robotic.
For some, associating a name with another concept is a helpful strategy for remembering people’s names. This can take many forms, and it’s entirely up to you to choose which way works best. It can be as simple associating their name with a particular detail they reveal about themselves, like a hobby or interest. You can also come up with a rhyme or a piece of alliteration to help you remember.
After meeting someone, a very effective way to remember their name is to write it down. Whenever possible, write it down by hand, rather than on your phone or computer. Research shows that the act writing things down helps nurture comprehension and retention. What’s more, by jotting down a person’s name and any important details from your meeting you can refer back to these notes in the future to help make the most of your new relationship.
Remembering people’s names isn’t rocket science. In most cases, it just comes down to good habits. To make any new behavior a habit, you must decide that it’s important enough to you and your professional future to do the work it will take to make that behavior a regular part of your routine. While remembering names can sometimes seem insignificant, it could easily give you that edge over a competitor when fighting for a big project, interviewing for a job, or attempting to earn a client’s business.
To get inspired and read other helpful sales and business insights from Cydcor, check us out on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter.
We are Cydcor, the recognized leader in outsourced sales services. From our humble beginnings as an independent sales company based in Canada to garnering a reputation as the global leader in outsourced sales, Cydcor has built our name on provide our clients with exceptional sales professionals and proven sales and marketing strategies that get results.
Building resilience is one of the cornerstones of success in business—especially entrepreneurial pursuits. The ability to pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and get right back to the task at hand is paramount to success in business, at every level.
Whether you’re a seasoned sales professional or just starting out on your entrepreneurial journey, these tips for building and maintaining personal resilience will put you on the path toward having the strength and flexibility required for success.
Pick Your Battles
Knowing your strengths is a key component to success in any endeavor; leveraging your strengths in your work will get you farther, faster, than spinning your wheels in areas where you lack knowhow and confidence. No one is good at everything, though, and learning when to power through a difficult course of action versus when to delegate is important. Building resilience includes challenging oneself, but it also means knowing when a task is best given to someone else—and being OK with that.
Build & Maintain Your Self Confidence
Building personal resilience relies heavily on recognizing your strengths and maintaining your confidence in them. You know what you know—make sure others know it too! Personal resilience takes practice and self-reflection. Take some time to honestly consider which facets of your profession you’re best at and make a list you can reference to boost your self-confidence and bolster your self-awareness.
Hone Your Skills
When you know your strengths, you can get to work on improving them. When your areas of expertise and your specialized skills are all second nature, the business of bouncing back from times of difficulty—or even failure—becomes easier. Call on your talents, experience, and knowledge to help you get through tough times, and build on those unique advantages to move on from setbacks. Honing your skills also reinforces your self-confidence, creating a powerful feedback loop for yourself as you maintain your personal resilience.
Be a Team Player
Business is built on relationships. You want—need—to be someone people want to work with. Reliable. Helpful. Trustworthy. Talented. The list of superlatives people want from their teammates and networks can go on and on, but the bottom line is this: being an indispensable member of your professional community is key to building professional and personal resilience. When your network is strong, bouncing back and moving forward—and extending successes—is much easier, because you can call on those relationships as you seek new opportunities, constructive feedback, and emotional support.
Manage Emotions During Losses—and Wins
The most resilient people have a keen understanding of their emotions and are skilled at managing them. This doesn’t mean building resilience requires stoicism—the opposite, in fact. Those who take the time to see the good in things and spread their positive outlook find it easier to work through rough patches. They see each experience, positive or negative, as a way to learn. These are also the people who are self-aware enough to see when things are going well and celebrate them.
What strategies do you use for building your personal resilience? Share your thoughts on Twitter and be sure to follow @Cydcor on Instagram to learn more about our company and our culture.
In business, as in life, building relationships is key. No matter how talented you are or what service you provide, if your customers don’t like you or, worse, don’t trust you, you’re not going to get very far. Networking is a critical part of advancing your career, but making contacts will only serve you if you can foster them into fruitful business relationships.
Whenever you’re meeting with a client or a connection, especially a new one, make time in advance to learn a bit about them. Whether this means speaking to mutual acquaintances or researching online, doing your homework on a prospective customer or contact will allow you to identify common ground and better equip you to answer their questions or provide what they’re looking for. If you want them to give you their business, it’s crucial to come prepared. Coming to meetings well versed on the other party’s needs also assures them you will go the extra mile on their behalf.
Business relationships are investments. We invest time and energy into them with the expectation that they will provide value. Just as you’re hoping to leverage your business relationships to achieve certain goals, so are your colleagues, business partners, and customers. So, consider what value you’re providing back to them. In some cases, it may be helpful to illustrate what you have brought to the relationship by presenting hard numbers and proof of results. By making a strong case for the overwhelming benefits of the relationship, you stack your deck for success, and ensure the business relationship with grow and flourish in the future.
There’s a reason why your parents always said, “Honesty is the best policy.” It is. If you promise your client the sun, moon and stars when networking, then that’s exactly what they’re going to expect. It’s important to set ambitious goals, but it’s just as important to deliver. If you can’t come through, be proactive about letting your client know. Otherwise, any frustration they feel will be compounded by your having mislead them and your business relationship may suffer as a result. To avoid this scenario, set reasonable goals and manage expectations with customers, bosses, and colleagues. Promise only what you are absolutely certain you can deliver. It’s always better to surprise someone by providing more than expected rather than over-promising and under-delivering.
Ultimately, you’re here to serve your customers. If they feel your own agenda is taking priority over theirs, your business relationship will not last very long. You can only meet someone else’s needs if you listen to what those needs are, so always be as ready to hear as you are to speak. Listen to Cydcor President, Vera Quinn on the subject of really hearing your client:
You likely learned about playing “hard to get” in high school. In many ways, the same rules apply when building business relationships. If you appear too interested – contacting them incessantly, coming across as desperate for their business – they may start to suspect that you’re not that hot a commodity. You should seem interested in securing their business and maintaining a fruitful partnership, but make it clear that you have other irons in the fire and will be fine should things not work out. As we said earlier, if you’re clearly demonstrating the value you’ll bring to the relationship, they’ll be interested.
It can be a fine line between projecting confidence and arrogance, but it’s one you’ll have to navigate if you hope to form long-lasting and fruitful business relationships. A client or contact will be impressed by your knowledge and expertise but annoyed if it crosses over into condescension. You demonstrate your value to this business relationship best by doing your job well, not by being your own hype-man. An easy way to avoid sounding arrogant is to continuously show the other party that their thoughts and opinions matter. Remember that all business relationships are partnerships of some kind, meaning that both parties rightly feel that they matter and their ideas have value.
Often we make ourselves most available when we want something, and less so when we don’t. After you complete whatever business you’ve conducted with a client or contact, it can be easy to fall out of touch. Don’t fall into this trap. Make an effort to stay engaged and to continue networking, even when there’s nothing clearly “in it for you.” Business relationships, like fires, require constant kindling, or they can fizzle out. By checking in with clients and contacts on a regular basis, you demonstrate your long-term investment in the relationship and dedication to your customers.
Ultimately, maintaining a real, lasting business relationship is a marathon, not a sprint. It takes time, it takes work, and it takes commitment. By constantly providing value to your client or contact, consistently delivering what you promise, and by taking the time to nurture the relationship, you can build relationships that will continue to pay off for years to come.
Entrepreneurship is an exciting opportunity for those, with the right attitude and pioneering spirit, to build something from the ground up, take ownership of their time and decisions, and potentially, achieve financial independence. But what are the characteristic of successful entrepreneurs? Why do some succeed while some don't?
Becoming a successful entrepreneur requires unwavering focus and commitment to your craft, strong relationships, and an open mind to new perspectives. We asked a group of entrepreneurs about what drives them and what they believe it takes to achieve success. What we discovered, is that even when you do everything right, success is not guaranteed, but the thrill of the journey, the chance to influence and support others, and the potential payoff are what drive daring entrepreneurs to venture down this career path time and again.
COMMON CHARACTERISTICS OF SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEURS
What sets entrepreneurs apart is not their mastery of specific hard skills such as writing, programming, or public speaking. From our discussions with independent business owners, we learned that the top characteristics of successful entrepreneurs are rooted in soft skills shaped by the right attitude and mindset, seen in the infographic below.
Self-Motivation
It’s easy to talk about building a business, but it’s entirely another thing to do it. The number one characteristic of successful entrepreneurs is self-motivation—the ability to put ideas into action. Think about some of the best-known entrepreneurs. Steve Jobs, for instance, didn’t wait for a company to come looking for him to build a new kind of personal computer. Instead, he partnered with the right people, turned his ideas into real-life products, and convinced the public that they needed the Apple Computer. Self-motivation can mean the difference between dreaming and achieving.
Determination
Our business owners identified determination as another major characteristic of successful entrepreneurs. This important trait is the drive that helps us follow through once we start. It’s what pushes us back up when we fall, and keeps us moving through uncertainty until we reach our long term goal.
THE BENEFITS OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Going from ideas to great products or startup to corporation is a remarkable feat that requires passion, focus, and resilience. It’s not a straight path, and there will often be twists, turns, and moments of uncertainty. We wanted to understand what makes it all worth it? What is it about the life of an entrepreneur that continues to drive so many to brave those, sometimes, stormy waters?
Developing Others
The majority of entrepreneurs said the most valuable benefit of entrepreneurship is the opportunity to help others grow and develop. Think about it. At one point, these entrepreneurs were employees, too. At the helm of a business, an entrepreneur has the experience to recognize greatness in others, and the leadership expertise to inspire them to get there.
Opportunity for Growth
Have you ever felt like you’re not getting anywhere in your current role, or looked up the organizational chart and didn’t like what you saw? Another major benefit of entrepreneurship is the opportunity for growth. And not just career growth, but personal growth, as well. Taking a chance on yourself and pursuing your passions will test your comfort zone, but the freedom to be your own boss and do what you love is an unparalleled experience and a unique benefit of entrepreneurship.
See what else entrepreneurs had to say about why owning and growing your own business is worth it.
Building a successful business of your own is not something that happens overnight. It takes unwavering dedication, unshakable focus, and a healthy dose of endurance. It’s an accomplishment, much like a marathon, that is achieved one step at a time. But for those who stick with it and embrace the adventure, the benefits of entrepreneurship can be life-changing.
Most highly successful people share one important trait: focus. They know what their purpose is and what they want to achieve, and everything they do and say aims to bring them closer to their goals. But maintaining that intense level of dedication and drive takes effort.
When striving toward any goal, it’s important to find ways to remind yourself why that goal is so important to you so you can stay focused. Creating a personal mission statement gives you a way to identify your values, commit to your goals, and put yourself on a path toward success.
QUESTIONS FOR CREATING A PERSONAL MISSION STATEMENT
To create your own personal mission statement, start by asking yourself these questions:
THE BENEFITS OF HAVING A PERSONAL MISSION STATEMENT
There are many benefits to creating a mission statement to help you reach your goals:
PERSONAL MISSION STATEMENTS FROM NAMES YOU MIGHT RECOGNIZE
High achievers in many industries live by a personal mission statement. Here are a few:
Gary Polson, CEO, Cydcor
“As CEO of Cydcor, I will assure the long-term growth and health of Cydcor and the opportunity by 1) attracting, developing, motivating and recognizing our people; 2) developing a culture of sustainable success; 3) overseeing the strategy; 4) focusing on the financial health of the field; and 5) building relationships with our key people and connecting with the newer people.”
Richard Branson, CEO, The Virgin Group
“To have fun in (my) journey through life and learn from (my) mistakes.” (Motivated Magazine, 2011)
Oprah Winfrey, CEO OWN
“To be a teacher. And to be known for inspiring my students to be more than they thought they could be.” (Oprah.com, 2009)
Amanda Steinberg, CEO, Dailyworth.com
“To use my gifts of intelligence, charisma, and serial optimism to cultivate the self-worth and net-worth of women around the world.” (Forbes, 2014)
Creating a personal mission statement is just one more way you can position yourself to reach your goals. Writing down your goals, values, and vision for your future is a form of commitment in itself, but creating a mission statement does not guarantee success. In order to make your mission statement work to your benefit, you must imbue it with importance. Whether daily, weekly, or monthly, check in with and remind yourself of your mission statement to keep yourself faithful to its message. Consider keeping it by your bedside, taped to your bathroom mirror, or posted at your desk. You could even use your mission statement as part of your social media profile as way to subtly invite others to hold you accountable as well.
While the act of creating a personal mission statement can help you learn a lot, committing to its message could help you transform it from words into reality.
We Asked About Careers in Sales; Sales Managers Answered.
Whether you're pursuing a career in sales, or you’re considering one, working in sales is exciting, challenging, and highly rewarding! A career in sales can benefit you by helping you find focus, teaching you to set ambitious goals and achieve them, and by showing you the value of helping others reach their goals, as well. We asked a group of sales managers about what they believe to be the best and most rewarding aspects of working in sales, and the results are in. Check out our findings in the sales infographic below:
A career in sales can have a profound impact on you and your future success. Even if you only work in sales for a short time, gaining sales experience can increase your value to a potential employer by expanding and improving your skillset. It can also bolster your leadership ability by putting you in a position to mentor others, to help them achieve their own career goals and aspirations.