Harnessing the power of Celebration

Posted on March 16, 2012 by Sean Moore | | 4 Comments

Last week we reviewed the power of reflection and how it can help track your accomplishments. If you took advantage of the exercise I mentioned of listing your daily achievements, you can likely see when you took steps (“did the right things”) towards achieving your goals. The key is being aware of your actions which create positive outcomes. Reflection enables you to not only know to when you repeat those actions, but to also celebrate, feel good about where you are, and how you got there.

If you’ve had the opportunity to attend Emerging Leadership training, you’ve heard the following quote from Ken Blanchard, one my favorite authors: “People who feel good about themselves produce good results!”  We often neglect to identify when we do something right; one of the best ways to enable “feeling good” is to catch people in the act of doing something right and providing “One Minute Praising.” It’s not only important catching others doing something right, but also important we catch ourselves doing something right so we can celebrate our own successes. Keep Reading »

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Harnessing the power of Reflection

Posted on March 9, 2012 by Sean Moore | | 2 Comments

In our business, people mistakenly assume they are productive because they are busy; yet, the two are not interchangeable. Merely doing things (“being busy”) will not result in success, whereas doing the right things (“being productive”) will. Most individuals I encounter in our business are highly organized—they keep detailed lists of tasks and things they’d like to improve on.

What if we took this a step further by reflecting on our accomplishments (i.e., reviewing the Standard/Model Day), and listing them out at the end of each day? Some would be surprised how short this list might be—mainly because we are all busy, never set out to fail, and work hard. We each execute our daily action items, but at the end of the day, are they the right actions? Are they productive? The bottom line: do they enable us to move toward our goals? Reflection is a powerful tool; it enables us to see the small adjustments and improvements we can make to ensure we are on the right path of the compound effect. Keep Reading »

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Stay In The Process You Will Achieve Success (The Story of The Two Frogs)

Posted on March 2, 2012 by Sean Moore | | 2 Comments

Over the years in sales management I have noticed a marked change with some sales reps; they have gone from utter frustration with their sales results to being extremely excited about the product that they are selling and their sales careers. Those reps with successes are consistently working hard, performing the same model behaviors every day, and taking advantage of the ‘compound effect.’ In contrast, the struggling reps often remove themselves from the process, are not working as hard, giving the impression they are not as hungry for success– which only leads to more failure.

I was recently reminded of a parable I heard as a preschooler that is a great example of the ‘compound effect.’ It is “The Story of The Two Frogs”: Keep Reading »

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The Great Attribution Error – A reps worst enemy

Posted on February 24, 2012 by Sean Moore | | 4 Comments

The fundamental attribution error is a theory that each individual is biased toward viewing behaviors within the context of their circumstances. However, when we observe behaviors of others, they are attributed to the individual’s personal character. Do you remember the last time you broke the speed limit? Not 5 miles an hour over—but really, really broke the speed limit. Why were you speeding? When asked that specific question, most provide a litany of circumstantial reasons for their “unusual” behavior. Now recall the last time someone was weaving through traffic recklessly or blew past you while you were driving. How did you feel about the speeding and reckless driver? Most would think the driver is a danger to society, they need to be stopped, and that in general speeding drivers are fundamentally different from them. They have a character flaw that makes them speed. In essence, the attribution error in this example comes down to, “we speed because of unique circumstances, but others speed because of who they are.” Keep Reading »

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The Magic Penny – Let’s get Real

Posted on February 18, 2012 by Sean Moore | | 5 Comments

MSN had a very interesting video that asked a number of regular people if they would rather have a million dollars now or take a penny now and double the amount for 30 days. As expected, 90% of people chose the million dollars now option. This was the poorer choice, because you would have short-changed yourself by over $4 Million at month-end. The simple act of doubling your previous day’s investment can rapidly reap huge rewards thanks to the powerful concept known as compounding.

While doubling a penny is all and well—the last time I checked no one has ever offered to double my money every day for an entire month. Even if we could apply this type of compound effect to something that affects us all in the real world, like a monetary account, how are we supposed to add up the compound interest effect to health, relationships, career goals, or sales results. Keep Reading »

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