Aussie Rules

Where focus starts freeing up time normally spent doing other things, software knowledge brings you massive productivity gains. It’s like magically pulling hours out of a hat.

For example, take the time to get to know your MS Office software, no matter how busy you are. You’ll learn functions that allow you to eliminate many repetitive tasks — many people literally spend days splitting names apart manually in Excel spreadsheets, when there’s a function that does it instantly.

First Focus. Make sure that you are doing the right activities for each of the roles you have in life. List and rate them all on how profitable or pleasurable they are for you. Find a way to eliminate the time wasters.

Then automate. Put your computer and software to work for you. If you do any work from home — get wireless and a laptop. You won’t have to be chained to the computer with your back to the family. You can sit on the sofa at night with them (and still get work done).

“If you want a good story, call Bob and Beth of Travelworld in Brisbane,” they all said. I was telephoning a variety of cruise line sales managers to learn more about the cruise end of the travel industry for a presentation. Wanting to add a good story to my keynote, my closing question was “Do you know anyone with a good marketing story to tell?”

So I called Bob.

“Debbie, we established our travel agency 15 years ago. Our location had no foot traffic, so we knew a customer database would be very important for us. We’ve been meticulous in our data collection,” Bob told me.

“When our cruise wholesaler gave us two days’ private notice before the public launch about a new one-off cruise around Australia they had put together, we knew we had to move immediately.” So they:

1. Selected everyone from their database that had been on a three- to four-week cruise or on that specific ship.
2. Emailed them suggesting they act urgently. After all, they had an entire cruise ship from which to pick a berth.
3. Added a special offer: half-price travel insurance.

The result? In two days, 60 passages sold. That was over one million dollars in revenue from that email.

“Bob,” I asked. “Could any other agency have done this?”

“My guess, less than a handful in the whole country,” was his reply.

I know what you’re thinking. “Nice story, Debbie. But what’s this got to do with me?”

Business is difficult today and good staff is hard to come by — whatever business you’re in, it’s important to have a good customer and prospect database. Ask yourself these questions:

• How detailed is your company customer database?
• How accurately can your company target (relevance to them — not you)?
• How fast can your company move when customer service or sales opportunities arise?
• How often does your company use your database to add value to service and bring in $$$?

There’s a wonderful, simple team-building program you can easily create. It was brought to my attention recently during a conversation in Sydney with Melanie Pike. She works in the Australian government department that leads the country’s Antarctic program.

Melanie said that to build morale, get staff to talk with each other (instead of emailing within the office) and to improve wellbeing management came up with the idea of grouping staff in teams and running a contest to see which team would be the first to walk the distance between the Australian Antarctic territories.

No, they weren’t sent out to the frozen south. Everyone was given a T-shirt and a pedometer. The team to first walk the distance would be the winner. Thirty people initially joined. Even those that were initially negative or who had pooh-poohed the idea got into the spirit. Currently there are 70 participating.

The positive effects from the program that Melanie and the executive team noticed:

• Turned workplace “strangers” into mates
• Got staff talking with each other
• Built morale and spirit along with a dose of competitiveness
• Gave staff a motivational and positive focal point to work towards collectively
• Improved health and wellbeing

Here are four tips to help make this idea work for you.

1. Pick a measurable, quantifiable goal. Walk the distance around Australia (collectively). Your state. Your city.
2. Mix fitness levels between teams for fairness.
3. Create a simple Excel chart to visually stimulate team competitiveness and show percentage of the goal completed.
4. The reward can be for the team or the charity of their choice — or everyone can walk to earn for a charity.

A recent Reuters article detailed how a Canadian government ministry (Citizenship and Immigration Canada) sent out a directive to its employees urging them to implement a BlackBerry “blackout” between 7pm and 7am and on weekends and holidays and to not use the devices during meetings.

“Work/life quality is a priority for me and this organisation because achieving it benefits us both as individuals and as a department,” deputy minister Richard Fadden was quoted as saying.

“When we can ‘balance’ our work and personal responsibilities, we, as a team, stand to not only serve and perform more effectively, but also to attract and keep employees to help us build a stronger Canada.”

Unfortunately, in my experience, trying to dictate a “work/life balance” just doesn’t work.

The reality is there are only two things you can do to create more time for yourself or family. The first is to do less by delegating — this frees up time.

The second is to do what you do more effectively, thus spending less time doing it.

So how do you go about all this then?

1. Focus on the right activities
   You should focus your time on doing the right activities for you. List the roles you lead in your life on a piece of paper. Headings might include: Business, Home, Partner, Parent, Community. List all activities. Open your mind and brainstorm. (This is also a good time to ask yourself questions like, does your activity match your role? Your goals? This important self-examination is where your time and balance breakthrough begins.)
2. Grade your activities
   “A” — Very important, something you must do (serious negative consequences if you don’t do it).
   “B” — Important, something you should do (minor negative consequences if it is not completed).
   “C” — Nice to do.
   “D” — Delegate.
   “E” — Eliminate whenever possible.
3. Create more time through automation
   Where focus starts freeing up time normally spent doing other things, software knowledge brings you massive productivity gains. It’s like magically pulling hours out of a hat. For example, take the time to learn more about your Office software, no matter how busy you are. You’ve heard the old adage it takes time to make time. You’ll learn functions that allow you to eliminate many repetitive tasks. Many people literally spend days splitting names apart manually in Excel spreadsheets, when there’s a function that does this instantly.

If you haven’t been involved in one, I’m sure you’ve witnessed a heated conversation between work colleagues in which potentially beneficial discussion gets lost in the tension.

A colleague of mine, Donald Jessep from Profitableteams.com, was describing a heated exchange between Mike, a Financial Controller, and Steve, a Sales Manager. Mike suggested they close one of the company’s branches.

“You can’t do that” was Steve’s retort to Mike’s suggestion. Mike fired back a dirty look and the blood pressure of both men clicked up a notch. Mike’s enthusiasm evaporated and what could have been an idea worth discussing went no further.

If Steve had exercised discipline in applying the three steps of an age-old process there would have been a different outcome to the discussion.

• Step 1 — Acknowledge the person. Even if you don’t agree with the comment. Acknowledgment can be a smile or the gift of undivided attention.
• Step 2 — Give a reason to explore another angle. The reason has to be plausible, even encouraging to the person who proposed the idea … and free of all judgment.
• Step 3 — Ask a question, a high-quality question. A high-quality question demands just the right amount of mental stretch to answer.

They’re simple ideas, but sadly, especially once we become familiar with people we sometimes lack the awareness and discipline to apply them. Highly influential people have this process deeply ingrained and can apply it even under pressure.

Does your job depend heavily on written communications — memos, reports, articles? Do they get the attention and response you believe they deserve?

Why not have your recipients not only read them but look forward to them? It only takes a little extra thought and effort to turn your lacklustre verbiage into star communications — no matter how serious the subject matter.

Just steal a page from the success book of email and direct marketers. According to a study outlined in the Marketing Sherpa newsletter, readers responded best to these three types of articles.

1. Humour — You might consider a funny “10 excuses for being late” as an alternative to the normal “Why is everyone always late for meetings?” memo.
2. Headlines with numbers — Just take a look at Digg — everybody loves lists with titles like “Four Ways to Save Power in the Office” or “The 10 Most Popular Newsletters”.
3. Controversial topics — Now there’s a surefire way to get your missive read!

Try it — see if you don’t get a better response to your communications.

You negotiate each and every day. It can be anything from “which program should we watch tonight?” to “What’s the best price I can get?”

So if you can improve on those skills, it will help you in everything from salary reviews to getting two staff members to work together better.

Here are nine tips to improve your success:

1. Be a Spice Girl — establish what you really really want. Before you even think of starting your negotiations, nut out:
   • Exactly what you want. Be concise. Write it down. Own it.
   • Your worst case scenario — what you will sacrifice or let go of.
   • Very best case scenario.
2. Consider it a chess game, preparation is key. List all your negotiation points. Have possible rebuttals and alternatives planned out. Start with a few points from your best case scenario that you’re happy to concede. Please don’t forget to be reasonable. Both parties need to feel they’ve been successful.
3. Know thy opponent. Rugby teams help prepare for their matches by watching videos of their opponents in action on the field. So research the party you’ll be meeting with. What perspectives will they will bring to negotiations? What are they like? What are their soft points? Have counterarguments pre-prepared against objections they might raise.
4. Face to face is best. You can’t see a twitch over the phone or anger set in while reading an email. Because non-verbal cues are so communication-rich, they can help you in your negotiations tremendously. Try to do your negotiating in person.
5. Have a huge you/I ratio. Plan each point from their perspective. Try to turn as many of your “I”s into “you”s as you can. For example, replace “I think” with “Do you think?” or “Wouldn’t you agree?” This brings the other side more personally into it.
6. Ask questions. Questions help get communication and understanding flowing. They are also a great strategy if you find yourself stuck in a corner. A well thought out question can both reopen discussion and uncover any doubts or concerns.
7. Use authoritative sources. Dropping in expert research or well known sources to back up your argument will give you credibility and increase your persuasiveness.
8. Silence is golden. We all hate awkward silences. Often silence takes over when both parties have spoken, and a concession is due. Learn to wait out the silences to your advantage.
9. See it. Believe it. Visualise yourself in the negotiation. Have it play out to your advantage. Observe yourself confidently employing the above strategies and coming out successfully.

Would you like to know the secret to being more successful when you try to hire a new staff member; go for a budget increase or move an intractable employee? It’s something that I learned in a coaching workshop on becoming a better speaker. While you most likely won’t have to stand and talk in front of hundreds, being able to tell a good story will make you more successful, persuasive and motivating. There is a skill to telling a good story. Here are five tips:

(1) I/You Ratio
The reality is, people don’t care about you — they are interested in themselves. So turn everything around from you to them–from sales presentations through to stories that start out “my wife/client did this”. Instead draw them in by turning it around: “I’m sure you have a man in your life that did this (like my husband)” or “You would have met a client like Bob.” Remove the focus from you.

(2) Description
Normally you would minimise details so as not to bore. But good stories have real characters and dialogue — people think in pictures. So if you talk about a person, describe them. Give specific detail regarding time and location. For example “It was on a normal windy afternoon that you come to expect, living in Perth”; “She was so short with so many tassels hanging from her shawl you’d think she was a 1950’s lampshade.”

(3) Conversation
Your story will really come to life when you add dialogue. Instead of “he said, she said”, actually rely what was said. You go to superstar status if you can even use different voices or if you were talking before an audience.

(4) Dramatic impact first
Your story doesn’t have to start in the beginning with the natural progression. Why not look for dramatic impact by starting with a bold statement to pull your listener in, and make them want more immediately? You can start with the end or in the middle, then go back and fill in the details. If you were talking about a scary experience, your first words could be “I thought my life was over” (pause for dramatic impact) then go to the beginning and start the story.

(5) Where to find stories
If you’re scratching your head wondering where you can come up with stories, believe it or not they are all around you — in your everyday experiences, your past. They are lessons learned from parents and past employers, stories people/clients have told you and sales experiences.

So when you next need to be more persuasive or more memorable (to beat the pants off your competition) dig deep, grab a story, give it detail and practice telling it.