Friday 14 November 2014

Keep Management Happy (and Off Your Back!) In 2 Emails

All managers have expectations, and you need to keep your manager happy. In sales, this happiness is often measured daily or weekly. Some managers tell you right out what their expectations are. Others hint around it. Still others say nothing, and hope for good numbers. It is important to understand what the expectations are, because they will keep you from trying to reinvent the wheel. No matter what your manager's style is, get clear on the expectations, and adjust when they change.

Most management expectations are built on history in your market, and they’ve discovered which ratios and activities yield the desired results. Do as they ask. Eventually, you may discover that management isn’t as married to each activity as much as it is to hitting their numbers, and you can change tactics to get there. Maybe you’ll discover that the only thing that works is following their formula. The point is, the decisions you make about how to plan your work need to take management expectations into consideration, and meet their needs. If you don’t meet their needs, you will be replaced. It’s harsh, but it’s true.
A very effective tool for spending time efficiently is to keep management in the loop is to write the broad strokes of your plan for the week in a simple email, and send it to your manager. “I have follow ups with A, B, and C companies for sales calls. X, Y and Z have closing appointments scheduled. I’ll be cold-calling in Bergen County in the mid-week.” Send it on Friday night or Monday morning. No, telling her in a quick moment in the hallway isn’t enough! If your manager has specific expectations, you’ve told her the highlights of how you’re planning to meet them. If your manager has no expectations, she knows what you’re doing. And when your manager wants you to focus in a different area, she’ll write back or tell you. You’ll know before you blow your time on the wrong stuff.
This approach also seems to keep micro-managers off your back. Just remember to send a follow-up email at the end of the week explaining your accomplishments. If something went badly, admit it, and indicate how you plan to remedy the situation. This should not be in the same email as the “Plan” email! Identify each with the specific dates they cover so you can quickly reference them over time. Ex: “X and Y closed as expected. The contracts are in fulfillment. Z is shopping the competition, and has concerns about the sales agreement. Another meeting is scheduled next week. Cold calls yielded 6 follow-up calls in Bergen County. Company A was a one call close, and the contract is on your desk! B scheduled a presentation for Monday morning. C has a closing appointment with us Tuesday.” This simple summary shows your boss what your piece of her team is doing, and helps her make effective management decisions.
All of this communication creates a paper (email) trail that will be helpful to you at review time, as it will be easy for you and your manager to quantify your efforts and your results. You'll also be able to look back and see patterns emerge around certain sales approaches and subsequent success or failure. All this in two emails a week! Get writing!

I want Mark Zuckerberg’s Tshirt

Rarely do I wish I was a man.
Last week Mark Zuckerberg gave his first ever live Q&A and while he was asked really interesting questions about FB and diversity and especially about their computer science program “Girls who Code” one of the best and most telling, from my point of view, was the question about his T shirt and his great reply:
Why do you wear the same grey t-shirt every day?
To which he replied:
“I really want to clear my life so that I have to make as few decisions as possible about anything except how to best serve this community,” Zuckerberg said, referring to the Facebook user base.
“I’m in this really lucky position where I get to wake up every day and help serve more than a billion people, and I feel like I’m not doing my job if I spend any of my energy on things that are silly or frivolous about my life, so that way I can dedicate all of my energy towards just building the best products and services.”
This is what I want, to be able to wear the same thing every day. OK, so right now I don’t “help serve more than a billion people”. I’m working on it.
Being able to wear the same clothes every day has been my dream for some time ever since realizing that Steve Jobs only wore that same black polo neck and jeans. I was deterred because some how wearing the same clothes every day is easier for men. I then learned that Barack Obama wears the same clothes and eats the same meals every day, I thought “That’s me”. I eat the same breakfast and pretty much the same lunch every day.
When I don’t have to think about the minutiae, my mind has more room for thinking about really important things
Many intelligent and creative people eliminate the small, tedious decisions in their lives because they simply do not have time for them.
I often have a discussion with clients when we are working together to improve their business outcomes. I talk about eliminating the minutiae and suggest they develop systems and processes for many of the things they do routinely.
This is often met with eyes glazing over and they say some thing like “Oh no, systems wouldn’t work for me, that would just stifle my creativity!”
Far from stifling creativity having systems and processes positively unleashes creativity because the mind is free of all the nitty gritty decisions
Have you ever thought about which daily, trivial decisions you could eliminate?
Me, I’m off to buy some Tshirts! Won't be grey, or black. Maybe white? or perhaps green?

Tuesday 11 November 2014

A jobless man applied for the position of 'office boy' at Microsoft.

A jobless man applied for the position of 'office boy' at Microsoft.
The HR manager interviewed him, then gave him a test: clean the floor. The man passed the test with flying colors.
"You are hired," HR manager informed the applicant, "give me your e-mail address, and I'll send you the application for employment, as well as the date you should report for work.
The man replied " I don't have a computer, or an email!"
"I'm sorry," said the HR manager. "If you don't have an email, that means you do not exist. And we cannot hire persons who do not exist."
The man was very disappointed.
He didn't know what to do. He only had $10 with him. Once that is spent, he won't have any money to buy any food.He went to the supermarket and bought a crate of tomatoes with his $10.He went from door to door and sold the tomatoes in less than two hours. He doubled his money.He repeated the operation three times, and returned home with $60. He realized that he can survivethis way. He started to go everyday earlier, and return late.He doubled or tripled his money every day. Soon, he bought a cart, then a truck. In a very short time, he had his own fleet of delivery vehicles.

Five years later, the man became one of the biggest food retailers in the U. S. He started to plan his family's future, and decided to have a life insurance.He called an insurance broker, and chose a protection plan.At the end of the conversation, the broker asked him for his email address.The man replied: ' I don't have an email.'The broker was dumbfounded. "You don't have an email, and yet have succeeded in building an empire. Can you imagine what you could have been if you had an email?," he exclaimed.The man thought for a while, and replied, "an office boy at Microsoft!"If you just lost your Job or Just failed an Interview Don't worry be Optimistic..... Good days are on the way and something better is reserved for you.