Cliff Robbins Speaks

Ask Cliff to speak at your next gathering...

                               

Management -- Never Wrestle With a Pig

You both get dirty; and onlt the pig likes it.

Conflict resolution (CR) skills can defuse ugly situations and build rewarding relationships and stronger organizations.  

Are you willing to fix the problem, listen to what the problem is for them, say what the problem is for you, attack the problem not the person, and look for answers so everyone gets what they need?

Conflict is not a problem in itself.  It's how we handle it and what we do with it that really counts.  CR skills enable us to overlook personal differences and open up to possibilities. CR skills actually draw us closer to as we jointly search for mutually agreeable solutions.  It represents a shift from adversaries to partners; a shift in which each person benefits.  

Both you and the pig will be happier for it...

Leadership -- Or Lack Thereof

This guy listened and got himself           
elected.  

 

Now, I think, they've all stopped lisening to each other...and us!

Consultative Selling -- A Skill and an Art

In my last Sales Seminar, people didn't seem to understand the importance of asking probing questions and listening.  I explained that we've got TWO ears and only one mouth.  So, if you want to be a really successful salesperson, Ask good questions, then LISTEN!  Then use your brain before you shoot off your mouth.

Talk about a salesman with a competitive advanatage...

 

Marketing -- Still Can't See the problem?

Can you see the customer's problem? NO?

Maybe you have Marketing Myopia...

Theodore Leavitt published a blockbuster article in the Harvard Business Review entitled "Marketing Myopia" in 1960.  He introduced the question, "What business are you really in?"  He claimed that if railroad executives seen themselves in the transportation business rather than the railroad business they would have continued to grow. The article is as much about strategy as it is about marketing, but it also introduced the most influential marketing idea in the last half-century: That businesses would do better if they concentrated on discovering and meeting customer's needs rather than on just selling products and services.

I taught marketing research at Bentley College.  The first thing I told my students was that research should begin by talking to customers and asking them what they really need, want, and desire. Strategy is thinking of new ways to provide for those needs, wants, and desires.

Gee, what a novel idea.  Asking probing questions: LISTENING, watching, THINKING, serving.

Leadership & Sales -- Monkey Business?

When you're trying to influence, don't start by trying to pull others into your here. Instead, go to their there by to asking yourself:

• Am I getting who this person is?
• Am I getting this person's situation?
• Am I offering options and alternatives that will help this person move forward?
• Does this person get that I get it?

And THAT boys nd girls is sales!

So, is this you or them?

Entrepreneurship -- Aim for Smart Failure

I was not feeling very clever today; I wasn't sure what I wanted to write about.  But, like Edison said, "Innovation is 1% inspiration and 99% perpiration." So, I began to persire...then it hit me: Inspiration!  Let me see what's on my daily Harvard Business Review Management Tip of the Day. 

"Aim for Smart Failure."  Gee, I just tweeted about not tryng to jump out of airplanes without a paracuhte.  Then I wondered, who's being inspired by whom?   

'Aim for Smart Failure

If you want to encourage people to take healthy risks, you need to make sure they're not afraid to fail. The first step in doing that is defining what a smart failure — a thoughtful and well-planned project that for some reason didn't work — looks like. Chances are that everyone in your organization knows what success is. Far fewer know what a smart failure is. Specify what guidelines, approaches, or processes characterize smart risk taking. Provide clear examples of both smart failures and dumb failures and discuss why they're different. Point out what the smart ones have in common, so people know how to structure their experiments. If you don't define it, all failure looks risky and that kind of mindset will kill creativity.

Today's Management Tip was adapted from "To Increase Innovation, Take the Sting Out of Failure" by Doug Sundheim.'

So, if you want your people to be innovative, then they have to feel that they're in a safe environment. Just be careful where the tree falls...

 

What's the next wave of disruptive innovation in the business world? That's what I'm seeking. Cheap open software? Energy? I think so.

The PM -- It's Not the 'Prime Minister'

        
No Pressure - No Diamonds

The Pressure Man is the go-to guy when it's time to stop talking and get things done.

The Pressure Man is frequently resented, sometimes despised, and often underestimated. Why? Because he is willing to do what he has to do -- even if that makes others feel a little uncomfortable. Winning friends is not his primary goal in life. He's focused only on getting the job done. He would like to be liked -- he is, after all, very human -- but he is willing to sacrifice his personal feelings for the greater good of the business.

In every business that works -- that produces good products and makes sales and creates profits -- there is a Pressure Man. In every successful business I've been involved with, there has been someone who has pressed people into working harder than they wanted to, taking more risk than they felt comfortable with, being more careful than they were used to, being more creative than they believed they could be . . . and always to do better than they did the time before.

Everyone needs a Pressure Man in their business.  You may need a Pressure Man (or Woman) in your personal life as well. Goals are achieved by doing, and great goals require doing things most people don't have the capacity to do. To make the hard decisions, to work the extra hours, to have the difficult conversations, and to take the necessary risks . . . you need someone behind you to push you beyond your comfort zone. Pressure drives innovation.

But then, Prime Minister Churchill was [in fact] a pressure man: a leader. He's been generally touted as the greatest leader of the 20th century.  And when he put up his two fingers and made the victory sign, I think one of those fingers was especially meant for Hitler.

And God rest your soul Iron Lady...

So, how do you know when to hold'em? If tomorrow really looks better than today!

Entrepreneurship -- Cliff Robbins Sings (Well, sort of...)

 

Growth and profits are very important to entrepreneurs.  And without them there may come a time when it's time to give up on an idea.  Could be 4,5, or 6 years nto it; who knows...

Kenny Rogers was right. And now I'm gonna' do my version of the Gambler:
"You gotta' know when to hold'em, know when to fold'em. Know when to walk away, know when to run."

And he was wrong too: "You never count your money when you're sittin' at the table. There'll be time enough for countin' when the dealin's done."

Look at your financial staments: NOW! And regularly...pay attention to your numbers.