Communication: Understanding DISC will help you speak to Employees

DISC is an acronym for Dominance, Influence, Stability, and Conscientiousness, the four core personality styles the tool identifies. Recognizing a person’s predominant style provides exceptional insight into his/her communication preferences. Here are the key characteristics of each category:

Dominance
Employees with personalities that fit into the Dominance category might include managers and corporate officers. Descriptors of this style include: driven, demanding, aggressive, innovative, and competitive. These people are typically goal-oriented and relish personal challenges. When communicating to a person with a Dominance style, observe the following:
• Speak directly and be brief Focus on the task and stay on topic

• Approach the issue logically and discuss the desired results

• Identify opportunities, challenges, and obstacles

• Describe win/win situations Maintain space between yourself and the employee

Those who fit the Dominance category can facilitate communications by improving their listening skills, becoming more patient, and elaborating with more details.

Influence
A common job title for those who rate high in Influence are sales and customer service representatives. These employees are charismatic, inspiring, optimistic, and personable. These are very social people who have a need to verbalize. When communicating to this category, one should:
• Allow initial time for casual conversation
• Have fun and lower the intensity level
• Ask the person to express feelings and opinions
• Seek their creative ideas

Influence personalities may have poor attention to detail and can appear superficial. They have poor follow-through and will often talk "around" a subject. Expect to exercise patience with these employees. Influencers can improve the communication process by becoming more organized and specific in direction and praise.

Stability
This style will most likely be found among the company’s trainers, marketing staff, and administrative assistants. Their indicators are: adaptable, systematic, patient, predictable, and consistent. They are needs driven – both theirs and those of the people they help. When communicating with a person with high Stability, one will want to:
• Be patient
• Draw out the employee’s opinion
• Discuss facts logically
• Be relaxed and schedule sufficient time for discussion
• Indicate how the employee will benefit from the solution

Communications from this style may be non-emotional, indecisive, and lack assertiveness. They will often provide too many details. Those people who indicate Stability should work on their assertiveness and embrace change to improve communication.

Conscientiousness
People with a core style that is Conscientious are often working as accountants or engineers. They follow rules and are very meticulous and quality-conscious, often to the point of being perfectionists. When communicating with the Conscientious style, it is necessary to:
• Cite data and facts
• Examine every option
• Stay on topic and minimize casual conversation
• Focus on quality
• Avoid "new" solutions in favor of proven ideas
• Respect the employee’s personal space

Expect excessive communications from someone high in Conscientiousness. Be patient as they must process all information and will be slow to proceed. Conscientious people should consider improving their patience, building rapport, and becoming more accepting of differences.

By keeping these four styles in mind, managers will be able to offer information that the employee can more readily absorb, thus making communications more effective and productive.

Are You Truly Excited About What You Sell

We all know that sales are really all about "Closing The Sale". There is not a salesperson alive who does not use a variety of techniques to help them be successful with customers. However, I believe passion is the most underrated and underutilised sales tool in our arsenal because it is too hard to measure and no one has found an effective way to teach it.

Passion is an effective sales tool because it isn't artificial and can't be faked for a long period of time. It is displayed in people who genuinely care and are willing to take the time to serve their clients in whatever manner is necessary.

Passion in sales is evident when the coach takes the time to listen to their prospect and attempts to really understand what it is they are looking for. It is displayed not only in the questions that are asked, but also in the tone of voice and body language that is used and the follow-up that is demonstrated after the sales call. Coaches who have passion are able to create long-term profitable relationships with their customers. They also routinely benefit from referrals by their existing clients and, on many occasions, these prospects come to them ready to buy.

Before you rush out to practice your body language and tone of voice in an attempt to find passion, let me add the secret ingredient: heart. Passion comes from a genuine belief of wanting to help the client in both good times and bad.

Passion can actually be measured in a couple of ways. Begin by asking yourself this simple question: "When the day is over and my clients are reflecting back on the people they've interacted with and the activities they've done, do they think of me in a positive light that contributed to them having a good day?" It is important to consider whether your clients truly believe you are helping improve their day and their business. Another assessment tool is found in analysing the number of referrals you get. Referrals are an accurate measurement of how your clients view you. If they honestly believe in you, they recommend you to others

Passion in sales is underrated. Therefore, your ability to genuinely care about your clients, to show an interest in them, and to serve them will determine your long-term business success

Why Invest in real estate ?

I got thinking the other day about who was the first-ever millionaire.

It was a curiosity thing for me, as well as an opportunity to do some research online to see what would come up. I was shocked at what I found.

It gave me a real kick up the butt. Up until that point, I thought I was an action-taker. Unfortunately I was driving with the hand-brake on.

It's funny how these old secrets come up all of the time and really shift you paradigm and get you going again.

OK, let's get into it. This is a 161 year old secret that once you read it - it'll put "making money" into a whole new perspective.

Success leaves clues, so I dug around and found the name, John Jacob Astor.

Interestingly enough, he was an American from German background.

Astor got rich in the early 1800's trading furs, tea, silk and fine china. Principally a business person to start off with, but that was not where his real fortune was made.

He invested his trading profits in something that would prove to be even better...

Real estate.

His most profitable investments were in New York City where he built a reputation known as the "Manhattan Landlord."

Before he died, he left these powerful words. Astor said, "Could I begin life again knowing what I know and had money to invest, I would buy every foot of land on the island of Manhattan."

Astor passed away in 1848 leaving $20,000,000.00 to his family.

$20 million may not sound like a lot today to some of us, but in today's value it would be around about...

Wait for this...

$458 BILLION.

Now that's an insane amount of money.

This brief story about a person you've probably never heard about has many powerful lessons, doesn't it?

Let's go through them quickly...

#1. Increase your cash flow

#2. Invest in real estate

...I did say quick and simple, it really comes down to just
two things.

The parting words of John Jacob Astor should be written up an posted somewhere where you can see it every day.

Sure, Astor is talking about Manhattan, but don't let that limit you. Pick any major city around the world (even Australia) in that time frame and you'd see a similar story.

This real estate thing isn't a fad or a passing-trend, you would want to live for as long as you can and see as many cycles as possible.

The sooner you start, the better.

Good Enough Never Is

The mediocre and complacent justify their lack of effort and excellence by saying, “My work was good enough.” Well, good enough never is, as you never get a second chance to make a first impression.

Second best can lead to second class and in the competitive global marketplace mediocrity leads to irrelevance and being relegated to the status of “also-ran.”

The debate then becomes, what is good enough? Here is an interesting look at things – If 99% was good enough the following would happen in the United States not to mention what would happen globally.

If 99% were good enough then:
12 newborns will be given to the wrong parents daily.
114,500 mismatched pairs of shoes will be shipped each year.
18,322 pieces of mail will be mishandled each hour.
2,000,000 documents will be lost by the IRS this year.
2.5 million books will be shipped with the wrong covers.
315 entries in Webster's Dictionary will be misspelled.
20,000 incorrect drug prescriptions will be written this year.
880,000 credit cards in circulation will turn out to have incorrect card holder information on their magnetic strips.
103,260 income tax returns will be processed incorrectly during the year
5.5 million cases of soft drinks produced will be flat.
291 pacemaker operations will be performed incorrectly.


In many things 100% perfection is required. In everything 110% effort and excellence is the order of the day. So whatever you do – do it with excellence, knowing that if you don’t – your competition will.

There are certain things in life and in business which require perfection. The rest must simply be done with excellence. A heart surgeon clearly has some things which require perfection. On the flip side, some activities are not worthy of perfection like getting through your email or reprinting your handouts for the meeting for the twentieth time because you want to try it in one more different font or color. (There is the perfection paralysis syndrome too, so there must be a balance.)

It is a good exercise to determine what things in your organization or in your individual life require perfection and what things require excellence.
The message is to live your life and run your business with a 110% commitment to excellence – because good enough never is.

Tracking Your Goals to Achieve Success

I once heard a story of a very successful entrepreneur who ran more than eight businesses. It was told that the walls of his office were filled with a “visual display” for each business. Each visual display had three metrics that indicated if that business was succeeding or failing. He proudly stated that he only needed to walk around his office, look at those metrics and he knew exactly what was happening and what was needed.

In my years of coaching and business, I have found that goals are more effectively achieved when some kind of visual reminder is posted. For some it is a collage of personal dreams or a new focus. For others it is a big colorful poster of Key Goals. Most sales organizations exhibit a weekly activity checklist along with results produced as a reminder and accountability support.

Here is an exercise for you and your team, adapted from The Five Dysfunctions of Team Field Guide to establish your shared goals and visual display:

Establishing a Thematic Goal

Leaders, ask your team:

What is the single most important goal that we must achieve during this period if we are to consider ourselves successful?

The goal should not be quantitative, but rather a general achievement. Examples of common thematic goals include the following:

Improve customer relations
Get expenses under control
Increase market awareness
Launch a new product
Strengthen the team
Rebuild the infrastructure
Grow market share

The Time Period:
A start up company will probably want to have relatively short time frames, such as two or three months, while a more established company might have longer cycles, like a year.

The Challenge of De-prioritization
Prioritizing a thematic goal does not mean you ignore other important business goals. However, the point of having a thematic goal is to ensure that the entire team places EXTRA emphasis on a single area of priority, so that when push comes to shove, everyone understands what matters most.

The Challenge of Specialization
Some on the team may think that their job has nothing to do with the priority. The key to overcoming this is getting everyone to understand that they must wear two different hats when they are all together as a team. One of those hats, and the most important one, is that of “generic team member.”

Establishment of a Team Scoreboard

After identifying the thematic goal, have the team discuss and agree upon the handful of supporting objectives that must be accomplished if the thematic goal is to be achieved. If the thematic goal is to achieve market awareness, the supporting objectives might be to increase advertising, clarify the brand and value proposition, increase trade-show activities, and improve public relations.

In addition to these supporting objectives, a team’s scoreboard should include a few standard operational objectives such as revenue, expenses, employee turnover, or whatever essential metric is key to the business on an ongoing basis

The Four Emotions That Can Lead to Life Change by Jim Rohn

Emotions are the most powerful forces inside us. Under the power of emotions, human beings can perform the most heroic (as well as barbaric) acts. To a great degree, civilization itself can be defined as the intelligent channeling of human emotion. Emotions are fuel and the mind is the pilot, which together propel the ship of civilized progress.

Which emotions cause people to act? There are four basic ones; each, or a combination of several, can trigger the most incredible activity. The day that you allow these emotions to fuel your desire is the day you’ll turn your life around.

Disgust
One does not usually equate the word “disgust” with positive action. And yet properly channeled, disgust can change a person’s life. The person who feels disgusted has reached a point of no return. He or she is ready to throw down the gauntlet at life and say, “I’ve had it!” That’s what I said after many humiliating experiences at age 25. I said, “I don’t want to live like this anymore. I’ve had it with being broke. I’ve had it with being embarrassed, and I’ve had it with lying.”

Yes, productive feelings of disgust come when a person says, “Enough is enough.”

The “guy” has finally had it with mediocrity. He’s had it with those awful sick feelings of fear, pain and humiliation. He then decides he is “not going to live like this anymore.” Look out! This could be the day that turns a life around. Call it what you will: the “I’ve had it” day, the “never again” day, the “enough’s enough” day. Whatever you call it, it’s powerful! There is nothing so life-changing as gut-wrenching disgust!

Decision
Most of us need to be pushed to the wall to make decisions. And once we reach this point, we have to deal with the conflicting emotions that come with making them. We have reached a fork in the road. Now this fork can be a two-prong, three-prong, or even a four-prong fork. No wonder that decision-making can create knots in stomachs, keep us awake in the middle of the night, or make us break out in a cold sweat.

Making life-changing decisions can be likened to internal civil war. Conflicting armies of emotions, each with its own arsenal of reasons, battle each other for supremacy of our minds. And our resulting decisions, whether bold or timid, well thought out or impulsive, can either set the course of action or blind it.

I don’t have much advice to give you about decision-making except this: Whatever you do, don’t camp at the fork in the road. Decide. It’s far better to make a wrong decision than to not make one at all. Each of us must confront our emotional turmoil and sort out our feelings.

Desire
How does one gain desire? I don’t think I can answer this directly because there are many ways. But I do know two things about desire:

A. It comes from the inside not the outside.
B. It can be triggered by outside forces.

Almost anything can trigger desire. It’s a matter of timing as much as preparation. It might be a song that tugs at the heart. It might be a memorable sermon. It might be a movie, a conversation with a friend, a confrontation with the enemy, or a bitter experience. Even a book or an article such as this one can trigger the inner mechanism that will make some people say, “I want it now!”

Therefore, while searching for your “hot button” of pure, raw desire, welcome into your life each positive experience. Don’t erect a wall to protect you from experiencing life. The same wall that keeps out your disappointment also keeps out the sunlight of enriching experiences. So let life touch you. The next touch could be the one that turns your life around.

Resolve
Resolve says, “I will.” These two words are among the most potent in the English language. I WILL. Benjamin Disraeli, the great British statesman, once said, “Nothing can resist a human will that will stake even its existence on the extent of its purpose.” In other words, when someone resolves to “do or die,” nothing can stop him.

The mountain climber says, “I will climb the mountain. They’ve told me it’s too high, it’s too far, it’s too steep, it’s too rocky, it’s too difficult. But it’s my mountain. I will climb it. You’ll soon see me waving from the top or you’ll never see me, because unless I reach the peak, I’m not coming back.” Who can argue with such resolve?

When confronted with such iron-will determination, I can see Time, Fate and Circumstance calling a hasty conference and deciding, “We might as well let him have his dream. He’s said he’s going to get there or die trying.”

The best definition for “resolve” I’ve ever heard came from a schoolgirl in Foster City, California. As is my custom, I was lecturing about success to a group of bright kids at a junior high school. I asked, “Who can tell me what ‘resolve’ means?” Several hands went up, and I did get some pretty good definitions. But the last was the best. A shy girl from the back of the room got up and said with quiet intensity, “I think resolve means promising yourself you will never give up.” That’s it! That’s the best definition I’ve ever heard: PROMISE YOURSELF YOU’LL NEVER GIVE UP.

Think about it! How long should a baby try to learn how to walk? How long would you give the average baby before you say, “That’s it, you’ve had your chance”? You say that’s crazy? Of course it is. Any mother would say, “My baby is going to keep trying until he learns how to walk!” No wonder everyone walks.

There is a vital lesson in this. Ask yourself, “How long am I going to work to make my dreams come true?” I suggest you answer, “As long as it takes.” That’s what these four emotions are all about.

The Power Of Praising People

One of the keys to success is to have successful relationships. We are not islands and we don’t get to the top by ourselves. And one of the key ways to grow successful in our relationships is to be “life-giving” people to others. Every person we meet, we either give life to or take life from. You know what I mean. There are people who encourage you and when you are done being with them you feel built up. Then there are others who you feel torn down by. Successful people are people who have mastered the art of building others up.
One of the ways we build people up is to praise them. There is power in praising people! Something begins to happen in them, in you, and in your relationship when you praise someone. Remember a time when someone told you something about yourself in a praising manner? It was great, wasn’t it? You probably liked that person more after they praised you, didn’t you?
Now I am not talking about praising people for the sake of praising people. I am talking about honestly looking for and praising positive character traits and actions of others around you. Don’t lie to people. If they have done something wrong, correct it, but when they do something right, praise it!