Leadership quotes

Words of Wisdom

"If you think the cost of an over-satisfied customer is costly, think about the cost of an under-satisfied customer."  Lisa Ford

"Good customer service costs less than bad customer service" Sally Gronow, Welsh Water.

"You cannot improve one thing by 1000% but you can improve 1000 things by 1%". Jan Carlzon.

" A diamond is  just a piece of charcoal that handled stress exceptionally well" Anon

"For fast acting relief, try slowing down".  Lily Tomlin

"One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important" Bertrand Russell.

"A poor life this if full of care we have no time to stand and stare" William Henry Davies.

Communication Skills

Communicating well.

There are many obstacles to effective communication. As managers we will spend as much as 70% of our working time in verbal communication.  We learn to talk very early in life and tend to take the way we do it for granted. If we engage in any further verbal communication training in adult life then it is often about how we present to a group, how we express ourselves, how we can communicate our requirements more clearly in order to get what we need to be done actually  done. The main focus is on talking.

Being a good listener is a different skill. There is a story which makes the distinction between the skills of two famous, successful and contemporary British politicians who are reported as loathing each other. A young women had the good fortune to dine out in London two nights in a row and at the first dinner party was sat next to William Gladstone and at the second next to Benjamin Disraeli. On giving a summary of the experience she reported that she had engaged in fascinating conversation with both of them and that after meeting Gladstone had been left with the impression that he was the smartest man in London but that after spending time with Disraeli she was left with the impression that she was the smartest women in all of England.

This story may not be fact but is one that was used at the time to highlight the difference in the verbal  communication styles of these two successful politicians.

Effective Listening.

As managers we will often have a crowded schedule with little time for reflection. The people who work with us may have trouble finding a moment to raise an idea or a concern. Invariably we seem to get interrupted at the most inconvenient moments and push away a discussion.  This can be problematic for two good reasons.  The nagging concern that we may be missing something important and the negative impact on the person trying to impart the information.

So how can we be better listeners as managers?

Make time for the discussion. If  you can not talk now then set a time when you can.

Avoid distractions. There is nothing worse than to try and talk to someone who continues to do their email or read messages on their PDA when you are trying to communicate something important.

Be engaged and make the decision to actually listen.

Here are some ways that you can communicate to the other person that you are listening and at the same time these techniques will also result in you  hearing more of what they are saying.

Terms relevant to this article: 

Communication skills, communication, leadership tips listening skills, effective listening, leadership skills, management skills, top management skills top leadership skills, how to communicate


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How To Win Negotiations

Negotiating.

 

We tend to consider negotiating as a skill used in business and exercised by a separate group of specialists who negotiate big commercial contracts. In fact negotiating is an important life skill that we all do more of than we think.  In a family setting agreeing lights off time with your children becomes more of a negotiation than an instruction as they get older not to mention pocket money, allowances. use of the car,  curfew hours or holidays without the parents.

At work, negotiating your first salary is not something that occurs to most young people starting their first job but research shows that the affect of  getting an extra few pounds on that first salary can have a huge knock on effect across your whole career.

In business negotiation is often seen as a highly charged game of combat where there are only winners and losers.  This is not the most productive way of building your business. John Paul Getty is reported as having learnt from his father how important it was  when negotiating a deal to not try to make all the money that was available but to allow the other party to made some money as well.  This pragmatic approach was based upon his fathers conviction that if you stopped the other party making any money then pretty soon you would have nobody to do business with. 

Is Win Win possible?
 

One big problem when negotiating is that we don't know what the other party will settle for and what their sticking points are. We tend to find these out by feeling our way around and sometimes a deal will fall through because of some relatively minor point. 
 
How can we increase our chances of making a deal without giving in?
 
Try to avoid a fixed "bottom line" position.  While this protects you from selling yourself short it does not give you any leeway to respond to new information that comes up during discussions.
 
Establish beforehand if you can afford to walk away from the negotiations and the deal.  Try to identify the risks and judge if you can afford to take them. Remember that if you need to make a deal at any cost then you cannot reasonably expect to negotiate the best possible terms.
 
Look for scope to expand the deal to cover other areas and increase the potential.
 
Most negotiations are started because there are two parties who do  want to make a deal. This will  give you more power in the process than you may think.
 
Listen to what the other side are saying and be open to changing your tack.  Don't offer concessions unless they are asked for.

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A truly thought-provokingvideo about Leadership. Anyone who is an existing or aspiring leader should watch this.

Management Development

Have you ever wondered if you are getting a good return on the money you are spending on management development?

“Despite the billions of dollars, euros, and yen invested in coaching and management development, remarkably few executives can be regarded as skillful managers,” says Gill Corkindale, the former management editor of The Financial Times. In a posting on a Harvard Business School blog, Corkindale asks readers how this reality is possible.

Answering her own question, Corkindale offers two reasons, saying, “It's my guess that the majority of managers with responsibility for large teams and significant businesses either do not possess the requisite skills of a manager — or they just don't put them (new skills learned) into practice.”

Corkindale then proposes three reasons why executives fail to apply the leadership development skills they learn, including lack of time, budget constraints and the reality that, “behavioural change is difficult.”

Next, Corkindale proceeds to share some of the rules she recommends to help ensure that new managerial development skills are applied, including being open to experimentation and new ideas in learning, trusting that the learning will help, and committing to the plan for a minimum of six months. She also outlines five of the key development areas that she recommends for executives.

 You can read Corkindale’s full posting here

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