BE DiFFERENT or be dead Blog by Roy Osing

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December 19, 2011

7 Things “Putterers” do to be Great Leaders

Business Sales: 4 Clues to Intimacy
If I’m Cross, Everyone’s Cross
180 Degree Thinking
Several months ago I wrote an article “Leadership By Serving Around”. My thesis is that BE DiFFERENT leadership is all about helping people. Making it easier for them to do their jobs. Bashing barriers so they can do what they want to do.

A variation on this theme is what I call “PUTTERSHIP”. My observation is that good Leaders are great Putterers.

What is PUTTERSHIP?
1. It’s attention to DETAIL. Detail about people and what’s going on for them. It’s about the “Small Picture” where things get done. Where people take individual actions to move the organization forward. At the coal
face. If a Leader doesn’t know what’s going on at the Coal Face, how can she help the people working there? Exactly!
2. It’s an uncanny ability to REMEMBER stuff so you can take action later. Being able to remember what has been observed in the heat of the moment for future reference.
3. It’s making the work environment COMFORTABLE for people. Clean. Tidy. Organized. A nice place to work. A Maslov factor I suppose. A basic need that people have. If they are working in a pit, don’t expect them to deliver sterling results.
4. It’s about taking ACTION YOURSELF to what you observe. Putterers don’t delegate. They do. You can’t delegate Small Picture stuff that needs attention. No one other than you can deal with the situation as well because only you FEEL what needs to be done. Furthermore, Delegation of Small Picture issues sends the “I really don’t give a damn” message to all, and your currency with the troops takes a plunge.
5. It’s about constant ACTIVITY. Always on the move. Always looking for things to improve for people. Don’t forget The Small Picture has a high resolution and to be able to deal with issues requires a lot of movement on the Leader’s part. Keep your feet moving!
6. It’s about ANTICIPATION. Being able to apply what you’ve learned in other circumstances to a situation that is developing in front of you. And, as a result, either avoiding an unpleasant ending OR achieving
something extraordinary.
7. It’s about SMILING. Putterers love what they so. They smile a lot. And it’s contagious. And it costs nothing. People around them catch the Smile Virus. It spreads. Imagine a workplace where everyone is smiling! Think it’s productive? Ya.

7 Steps to Great Puttership. How many do you practice everyday?

Cheers,
Roy

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Posted 12.19.11 at 05:00 am by Roy Osing | Permalink | Comments (0)

December 15, 2011

Business Sales: 4 Clues to Intimacy

If I’m Cross, Everyone’s Cross
180 Degree Thinking
3 Steps to BE EaSY
You know that building deep trusted relationships with your business clients is critical to the long term success of your organization and you, personally. You have been working hard on it every day. It’s been a top priority.

The question is “How do you know if you are making any progress?”
Here are 4 clues to tell you:

1. You are always invited to your customers’s strategic planning meetings. They value your opinions. They know that you know their business. They trust your intentions. They honor your strategic skills and experience.
They view you as a friendly “Expert from afar”. You are a valuable member of their direction-setting team.

2. You have an “office” on their premises. A physical presence among them.They want you accessible. Close at hand. To bounce ideas off. Test some ideas. The ultimate expression of Trust and Value is real estate owned by the customer; given to you.

3. Your customer NEVER goes to an RFP. Why bother? They have so much trust and faith in you that going out to get others to submit a bid on what they want is seen as a waste of time. When your customer needs something, you are already on it. There is no need to involve other “suppliers”. You take action. You deal with it seamlessly.

4. Language. You are NEVER referred to as a salesperson from Acme (or whatever). Your currency in their organization places you among their Leadership Team. Labels are meaningless. You are their trusted colleague. Their partner. Their friend.

So, how did you do? Out of the 4 Clues, how many apply to you? 4/4 suggests you are in Sales Nirvana. 1/4 says you have some work to do.

The important thing is knowing where you are so you can take action to move on from there.

Cheers,
Roy

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Posted 12.15.11 at 05:06 am by Roy Osing | Permalink | Comments (0)

December 12, 2011

If I’m Cross, Everyone’s Cross

180 Degree Thinking
Slim Down Your Middle
3 Steps to BE EaSY
A happy, friendly and engaging restaurant server in Paris in my experience is a fairly rare occurrence. I’m not saying that great service CAN’T be found here, but I will say that service here has fallen short of my expectations more often than they have been met.

In a recent trip there, however, I discovered a GEM who was DiFFERENT from the Restaurant Serving Herd.

His name is Sam. He is a Parisian. He works in Le Coliseum restaurant on Rue Tripoli, across from Le Louvre.

In a rain downpour my wife and I dashed into Le Coliseum to first, escape the rain and second, to have a light lunch. Sam was unique. I watched him dashing about his tables engaging in warm conversation with all of his customers. He had an amazing energy level and was extremely outgoing and delighted in having fun with his local and out-of-town patrons.

One woman who wasn’t even dining there, but was walking by looking for the subway station, asked Sam for directions. Without missing a beat He quipped “Follow me.” and, with serving tray over his head to protect
himself from the rain, he led her out of the restaurant around the corner to where she had to go. Stunning Care for her needs. Not even a customer!

Finally I had to ask him the question that was on my mind: “Why are you so happy?” His answer was brilliant in it’s honesty, vision and simplicity: “If I’m cross, everyone’s cross.”

He recognized that HIS attitude had an amazing influence on the feelings and attitudes of his customers, and that if he were in a bad mood then everyone would be as well. His disposition made being in Le Coliseum an absolute delight.

His “up” attitude made the torrential downpour we were experiencing a veritable sunny one. What a great lesson for all businesses trying to deliver superlative service.
Recruit Sam. Lots of them. Look for smiles. Look for humor. Look for energy.

Cheers,
Roy

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Posted 12.12.11 at 05:00 am by Roy Osing | Permalink | Comments (1)

December 8, 2011