What Sells and What Repels in Business

Recently I have been thinking about what sells and what repels in the business world.

In the last two Saturday mornings my family and I have soaked up the beauty of the Gold Coast in the winter at a local farmers market, complete with sunshine, good food and some great music. On the Saturday just gone we wondered around munching on freshly picked strawberries, slurping our smoothies and were drawn to a stall that sold muesli, of all things. We tasted it and were impressed. And then something ‘sold’ me. 

I skimmed through the ingredients and smiled warmly when I came across the last ingredient, ‘love’. It seemed that I was about to purchase more than just muesli. When I ‘buy’ it is a decision made so much easier when I purchase someone’s passion, someone’s expertise, I am compelled to experience something that has been made with love.  

The same is true in the service industry, when often you are selling the intangible.  

When you think about your products and services what do you put in that expresses your passion, your expertise, your purpose, your ‘love’? 

When selling the intangible consider the following: 

1. Find a way to make the intangible tangible - write personal notes to clients, give away books relevant to your topic area or to what your client is interested in, package up your materials.
2. Wear your heart on your ‘business sleeve’ - using your website, Facebook page, twitter, marketing materials. Express your passion, ‘why’ you're in business, declare the ingredients you put in your ‘products’
3. Don’t underestimate value - the muesli cost us 3x the price of store bought ‘equivalent’. But it is soooo much better it cannot be measured. We, and plenty of others, were happy to pay a premium because of the value.

As Seth Godin says, the race to the bottom (price, service and connection) isn’t the end game. The race to the top is. The best way to get to the top? Try a little more love in your ingredients.

Loving connecting with you again,  

 

Warm wishes, 
Darren & Alison

Invite your friends and colleagues to sign up to our newsletter

Are we friends yet? Find us on Facebook. 

Have you checked out www.darrenhill.com.au?  Check it out and leave your lasting impression.

---------------------------------

The PLUG: Dealing with the Tough Stuff Program General Sessions

After the amazing success of our Dealing With the Tough Stuff Exclusive Showcase, three general sessions will be presented between Brisbane and the Gold Coast.  Want to know why you don't want to miss them?  Check out our Rave Reviews!

Brisbane
Thursday 28 July 2011
Time: 9:00am to 4:30pm
Location: John Wiley and Sons. 42 McDougall St, Milton. Qld.  4064.

Gold Coast
Thursday 25 August 2011
Time: 9:00am to 4:30pm
Location: Australian Institute of Management (AIM) Gold CoastParking available off Waterfront Place, Robina.  4226.

Having trouble delivering results from critical conversations?

'Dealing with the Tough Stuff' gives you, your management or organisation practical tools to deal with the really tough conversations within your workplace.

Many managers struggle with the process of dealing with tough conversations and in many cases actually avoid them completely.  This strategy of avoidance reinforces undesired behaviours and may precipitate further problems.

One of the biggest responsibilities with a leadership position is the importance of addressing and dealing with staff issues.  At times this requires you to 'step up to the plate' and ultimately deal with the tough stuff.

Visit www.toughstuffprogram.com for more information on Dealing with the Tough Stuff.

To register your interest  for a Dealing with the Tough Stuff program either on the Gold Coast or in Brisbane on please contact Matt on 0418 577 277 or matt@pragmaticthinking.com. 

THE GIFT: Darren Hill on Reputation

This weeks gift is a vidcast from Darren talking about 3 ways to build a strong reputation.  Check it out and tell us your thoughts below!

Work Within Your Strengths

How often do you spend time trying to improve your weaknesses?

Okay, next question (and a more important one).

How often do you spend time developing your strengths?

Neurological studies indicate that we are hard wired to excel when we are focusing on our areas of strength. Despite this, we often spend most of our time and energy on trying to get from bad to merely mediocre in our areas of weakness.

Our greatest growth actually rests in our strengths rather than our weaknesses. From our earliest cognitive development, we grow bundles of neurons in our brains in some specific areas. For some people, perhaps it is that they are better with numbers than the general population. For others it might be their innate ability to make other people feel at ease. We often term these skills as ournatural skills, or sometimes even call them aptitudes.

Because of the way our brain 'farms' its neurons, it is actually easier to branch new neurons off existing ones than create new neurons. This means, if we have a strength area (lots of neurons) we have the greatest ability to grow new neurons in that area. More neurons means more 'smarts' in that area. 

So whilst it is common to want to develop our weaknesses so that we are a more 'rounded' person, biologically it makes sense to focus on our strengths. When you stop and think about it, it actually makes sense. If you are working on something that you are interested in and really enjoy, you are more likely to spend more time on it, research it, and want to excel at it.

Adam Gilchrist had a natural talent for cricket, and this was obviously a strength of his. If he never trained, practiced in the nets or went to the gym, he would probably still play cricket far better than most people. But it was through his concentration on building his strengths that led him to be undoubtedly the best wicket keeper-batsman the world has ever seen. If Gilchrist had spent most of his time concentrating on his weaknesses rather than his strengths we would never have seen him dominate the bowling attacks from around the world.

But think beyond sporting parlance. Think of the leaders of any field and you will see people who have discovered, and then embraced, their strengths; for this was always the area they had the most potential to prosper.

Find those activities you get totally lost in and try and find ways to do more of these activities, focus on building and developing your strengths. You will be better for it!

Darren and Alison

info@pragmaticthinking.com

www.pragmaticthinking.com

Are You Asking the Right Questions?

Is poor communication a problem in your workplace?

Do you sometime wonder, how did we get into this mess of misunderstanding?

Are we actually speaking the same language?

When we sit down and talk about current problems in the workplace with CEO’s, HR professionals, Managers and Leaders, one of the biggest issues that continually comes up is the need to improve communication in the workplace. But really what does this mean? 

The reality is that we all communicate all of the time. Even when we are not talking we are still communicating. Human’s have an incredible innate ability to pick up on body language and subtle changes in behaviours and interpret the meaning behind these. The problem comes when there is a gap between what is ‘said’ (or unsaid) by Person A and what is understood by Person B.  

One of the key ways that we can all improve communication is to ask the right questions. 

Let me share a story...
 

As part of our training for the Gold Coast Marathon, Darren and I recently went on a run through a beautiful National Park on a fairly well established road. After a quick pitstop at a local picnic area I came out only to find Darren had gone. Waiting a few minutes to make sure he wasn’t hiding behind a tree, I then continued on what I thought was the right road, and the way home (you can probably guess that I had missed the turn and was indeed heading in totally the wrong direction!). 

After about an hour and a half of running up some steep hills I hailed down a car and asked if he could point me in the right direction. He told me that he’d seen my husband who was looking for me back along the track. Assuming that he was probably only a km or two back I declined the offer of a lift and headed back to meet him. 

If only I had asked ‘where did you see him?’ I would have saved myself another hour of running and Darren another hour of worry. In a rush to get going I forgot to stop and find out more about what the other person knew. 

There are often times in our communication that we don’t know what we don’t know. In order to improve our understanding we need to realise when we are filling the gap with our own assumptions, step back and ask the right questions. Become like the curious scientist who has an insatiable desire to find out more information and to understand better. 

So, what questions are the right questions? 

Any question that furthers your understanding of a situation is the right one. 

Maybe instead of asking, ‘how are you this morning?’, ask ‘what’s working well for you this morning?’ of even, ‘what is going on for you today?’.

Today stop and take the time to enquiry further. We would love to hear what are some of the best questions you’ve asked or been asked by others?
 

Warm wishes, 

Darren

Invite your friends and colleagues to sign up to our newsletter

Are we friends yet? Find us on Facebook. 

Have you checked out www.darrenhill.com.au?  Check it out and leave your lasting impression.

---------------------------------

THE GIFT: The Art of the Start by Guy Kawasaki
 

Guy Kawasaki is CEO of garage.com, a Silicon Vally based firm that assists high-Technology startups find startup capital using the internet.  Prior to this position, Kawasaki was an Apple Fellow at Apple Computer, Inc.  A noted columnist (Forbes), speaker, and founder of various personal computer companies, Kawasaki was one of the individuals responsible for the success of the Macintosh computer.
In this weeks gift, Guy gives us a top-ten list of the most important things an entrepreneur must accomplish.

3 Ways to Persist in the Face of Doubt

Permission and Persistence 

I found myself on a mentoring call with a client yesterday and we reached a critical point. In essence we were discussing if they should continue or not continue with a major project they had sunk some considerable time and money into. 

It was at the point I asked them a tough question.

“Do you have the permission to walk away?”

Let’s just say their response to my question wasn’t exactly the warmest part of our conversation that day. Incredulous probably best described their mood. 

After the initial shock of my question, we looked further at their case, and something became crystal clear. They actually hadn’t given themselves permission to stop the project, because even though they might physically cease effort into the space there would have been a continued investment of what Seth Godinreferred to in his book Linchpin as emotional labour.

Regret might have been one feeling that continued long after...it might also be frustration, anger, sadness or disrespect. All of these emotions can, and do, take up enormous energy even if they don’t appear to be a physical effort. And this emotional energy can be just as exhausting as physical effort.     

Relationship Counsellors and Therapists often talk about the concept of many people get divorced before they have earned the right to do so. Before they have earned the permission to end the marriage. The result? Baggage. 

Ceasing work tasks or projects is no different. Just because it is hard or doesn't appear to be working at the present moment isn’t enough justification to stop. If you don’t persist long enough to truly find yourself ready to cease, you will continue the project emotionally long after the physical work is stopped.

Persistence gives us the permission to call the shots. Until you have truly persisted to the point where the emotional response is a reasoned one, you aren't ready to divorce yourself of the task. 

How to persist in the face of doubt:

• Change it up: Persistence doesn’t mean simply doing the same thing for the same results. Try different strategies, different angles, new things in pursuit of the same goal
• Step it up: Work harder. Ask yourself the hard question ‘do I have more to give?’
• Back it up: Use your support networks. Do you have people you can call on to help you through. Never forget the problem with martyrdom is the ending isn’t ideal!

Warm wishes,

Darren

Have you checked out www.darrenhill.com.au?  Check it out and leave your lasting impression.

Invite your friends and colleagues to sign up to our newsletter

Are we friends yet? Find us on Facebook.  

---------------------------------

THE GIFT: Pragmatic Thinking's Alison Hill on Playing a Bigger Game

This weeks gift very special!  Pragmatic Thinking's close friend Ron 'Rowdy' McLeaninterviews Alison Hill, psychologist and mentor, on Playing a Bigger Game.
Alison explains how Playing a Bigger Game is much more than just a concept for business but rather applicable to all aspects of our lives and how not to let our own internal barriers get in the way.

3 Reasons Why Work/Life Balance is a Myth

This is something of a crusade for me.

For years I have quietly sat by and listened to people seek, demand and sometimes promote work/life balance, but I cannot sit by any longer without taking up the fight against one of the great myths that has infected workplaces globally in the last two decades.

Work/life balance is a sham. At best it is a concept that is misguided and is fundamentally flawed and is promoted by well-meaning people who have bought into the clever psychological framing and marketing that surrounds it. At worst it has no purpose other than to serve the market created by consultants who live off the back of its carriage.

Here are a few reasons for my vitriol against the work/life balance myth (WLBM)

The environment that created the WLBM

Big business and multinationals from past eras have a lot to answer for. For over 100 years they sought (under the principles of Taylor’s scientific management) to turn an army of people into robots and strip back their humanity. It still lives on. Ask yourself this question: ‘have you ever felt treated like a number at work?’ The answer is likely to be a yes.

For a century we asked people to not be people (Fordism, Japanese TQM etc) and the result? People felt the need to be someone at work and someone else at home. Be a robot between 9-5 and be a human being the rest of the day.

Separation and segregation were almost a necessity under the robot regime. But workplaces have changed significantly. The modern workplace cries out for humanity at work. Innovation and creativity are still the domain of the human being and not the robot.

WLBM was introduced to help people with the segregation and separation, often when people craved something altogether more desirable; an experience where work was as desirable as the rest of their lives. 

The WLBM is a system developed to try and mitigate the damage of another system... not a great recipe for success.

It serves people not playing to their strengths

Gallup’s research around people not working to their strengths is legendary. 17% of people surveyed responded in the affirmative (do you work in your strength areas at work?). So the flip side of that is less than 2 in 10 people at work actually work towards their strengths. Ouch! That means more than 80% of people at work aren’t bringing the best of themselves to work.

There a plenty of causal variables at play here, but the whole WLBM has a centre-stage role in this lack of people playing a bigger game. Think about it; while ever there is a methodology that asks us to put up with a ‘less than’ work environment, and remedy it with an awesome home life is fundamentally flawed. Here’s a novel idea: have an awesome work experience too!

Balance means equality

When we look at the term ‘balance’ it means to have an even distribution of weight.

When used in the phrase work/life balance it seems to suggest if we have X amount of hours at work, we need X amount of hours doing stuff we like/love to ‘balance’ the scale. This principle send cold shivers up my spine, and then the evidence I see makes me nearly weep. Because it never plays out in such a segmented, balanced fashion. Here’s how it really plays out in the real world.

WLBM - She works all week in a job she hates, but her weekends should be awesome to ‘balance’ her life.

Real world - She works all week in a job she hates, then spends all weekend stressing about the week that’s been, and the week that comes.

WLBM - He works his backside off all year and should be able to put his feet up and enjoy a four week ‘recharge’ on annual leave. 

Real world - He works his backside off all year, and his last week leading into leave is so busy he gets sick and spends the first week of his holiday in bed. Then spends time checking emails and phone all holidays so as not to be swamped on return.

WLBM - They think by putting up with an awful workplace for 20 years they will finally start living on their retirement and that will make it all better.

Real world - After putting up with that awful workplace for twenty years they suffer ill health from years of stress and their retirement isn’t the bed of roses they were after. 

So there are just three reasons why work/life balance is a myth. It deserves to be filed under other failed experiments from bygone eras like the jet pack or x-ray glasses. The only thing is not many people bought the jet pack or the glasses.  

I don't know about you, but I don't mind at all if my life is completely out of balance... especially if that imbalance is caused by large doses of awesome at work and at home. 

Warm wishes,

Darren

Have you checked out www.darrenhill.com.au?  Check it out and leave your lasting impression.

Invite your friends and colleagues to sign up to our newsletter

Are we friends yet? Find us on Facebook.  

---------------------------------

The PLUG: Dealing with the Tough Stuff Program General Sessions

After the amazing success of our Dealing With the Tough Stuff Exclusive Showcase, three general sessions will be presented between Brisbane and the Gold Coast.  Want to know why you don't want to miss them?  Check out our Rave Reviews!

Thursday 16 June 2011
Time: 9:00am to 4:30pm
Location: Robina
Venue: TBA

Thursday 28 July 2011
Time: 9:00am to 4:30pm
Location: Brisbane
Venue: TBA

Having trouble delivering results from critical conversations?

'Dealing with the Tough Stuff' gives you, your management or organisation practical tools to deal with the really tough conversations within your workplace.

Many managers struggle with the process of dealing with tough conversations and in many cases actually avoid them completely.  This strategy of avoidance reinforces undesired behaviours and may precipitate further problems.

One of the biggest responsibilities with a leadership position is the importance of addressing and dealing with staff issues.  At times this requires you to 'step up to the plate' and ultimately deal with the tough stuff.

Visit www.toughstuffprogram.com for more information on Dealing with the Tough Stuff.

To register your interest  for a Dealing with the Tough Stuff program either on the Gold Coast or in Brisbane on please contact Matt on 0418 577 277 or matt@pragmaticthinking.com. 


THE GIFT: Email Sanity: How to Clear Your Inbox When You're Drowning

This weeks gift is something Darren truly believes.  This is, your inbox is probably making you more unproductive than productive.  do you find you have so many emails that you cannot find that piece of information you are looking for?  Check out zenhabits for some tips on clearing your inbox.  Alternatively, dump it altogether!  Your world won't collapse.