I am struggling with this Salary.com article – 12 Bad Habits That Can Actually Help Your Career.  Here is one example:

Procrastinating

Today’s work culture expects us to multitask, run from one project to the next, and constantly be on the go. The urge to procrastinate indicates your brain is overtired, overstressed, and needs to slow down. Indulge and take a time out. You’ll come back refreshed, and better able to focus on the tasks at hand.

What?  Indulge and take a time out?  As a manager, procrastination from my direct reports was…discouraged.  I never recall telling them to indulge and take a time out.  To me it seems like a bridge too far in this article.

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Sometimes stories come along that just land in the wheelhouse.  This article would be one of them – Study of the Day: Why Crowded Coffee Shops Fire Up Your Creativity.

Hello.  I don’t need a study to tell me this fact.  In case you didn’t know:

Compared to a relatively quiet environment (50 decibels), a moderate level of ambient noise (70 dB) enhanced subjects’ performance on the creativity tasks, while a high level of noise (85 dB) hurt it. Modest background noise, the scientists explain, creates enough of a distraction to encourage people to think more imaginatively.

Which leads to this assertion:

The next time you’re stumped on a creative challenge, head to a bustling coffee shop, not the library. As the researchers write in their paper, “Instead of burying oneself in a quiet room trying to figure out a solution, walking out of one’s comfort zone and getting into a relatively noisy environment may trigger the brain to think abstractly, and thus generate creative ideas.”

Now add a large dose of highly-caffeinated black liquid and you have a perfect working environment.

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Oh does this Sales & Marketing Management article hit me where I live.  The gist of the article is the corporate speak many leaders use in hopes of sounding…smarter?  I really don’t know why they do it.  I have encountered this approach when working with leaders and their teams.  Assessing teams provides insight into how the team interacts and how the leader interacts with the team.  There are many leaders out there who seem preoccupied with the latest buzzwords and corporate speak.

A waste of time in my opinion.  Apparently the author shares this view:

“My leadership philosophy is to optimally leverage the passions of my people such that at the end of the day we maximize employee engagement to get them to think outside the box and synergistically drive value-added activities in a profit-maximizing way that is a win-win for our people, our shareholders and our customers.”

“It sounds great,” says leadership trainer Mike Figliuolo. “It is polysyllabic. It uses words with long definitions. I have only one question: what the hell does it mean?”

Amen.  I have no idea what that means either and I have heard that type of mush in many interviews.  I prefer this anecdote from the end of the article:

The boss went first, emphasizing the importance of teamwork, trust and having fun. Other participants took their turns and suddenly buzzwords were being tossed out like parade candy. One team member was uncomfortable with the emptiness of what was being said, however, so when it was his turn to speak he said simply, “My leadership philosophy is simple. Say what you mean. Do what you say.” He then turned and took his seat.

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I have encountered this issue of authenticity recently in a handful of situations and it has captured my attention.  Here’s why – Gen Y is all about authenticity.  As a Gen Xer, I would argue that it is high on our list also.  Yet, some Baby Boomers have a different approach to authenticity and it stems from one key approach – they believe they have to have the answer to every question.

Now I’m not talking about aerospace-grade questions, but questions regarding their field of expertise.  Recently I witnessed 3 different situations where different Baby Boomer-aged experts encountered a difficult question.  The question was clearly beyond what they knew yet all of them attempted to answer it as an expert.  Unfortunately for them, the people asking the questions did not seem to believe the Baby Boomer answers.  I didn’t believe them either.

The after effect of the interactions was simple – I no longer trusted their expertise.  The irony of it is in the fact that some of the questions were not even in their area of expertise.  The Baby Boomers did not have to provide an answer as they could have easily deferred the question.  Instead in each situation they attempted to spout some rather odd sounding answer that came across as just that…odd.

One of the most powerful communication tools is to simply state, “I don’t know.”  If that is too direct you can use, “I’m not sure.”  In a strange way, I find it edifying of the person’s expertise – they answer questions that they know and they legitimately answer with an I don’t know if it is outside of their knowledge base.

It is disarming, real and authentic.

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Here is a Forbes article that hits on a crucial topic for the next generation of leaders – agility (h/t Rick Brimacomb).  Short article but let’s set the table:

For companies to continue succeeding, next generation leaders must be able to handle any curve ball thrown their way. Leading through this new business environment requires the capability to sense and respond to changes in the business environment with actions that are focused, fast and flexible. The best way to put it: next generation leaders have to be agile.

Exactly.  The business market moves in rapid, titanic shifts requiring leaders to be nimble and agile to react.  The author’s description:

Agile individuals are motivated by expanding their knowledge, questioning the status quo, and actively migrate towards challenges. They thrive off of solving the difficult problems within the organization, as they believe it mutually benefits themself and the company.

I have worked extensively with a couple of leaders that fit this description and they are impressive to observe.  In my experience, they possess not only the agility described above but also an anticipation of what is coming.  When you combine anticipation with agility, you find a powerful leader who can move his or her company successfully through the ever-changing and evolving marketplace.

As they say, read the entire article.

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-Discounting is a hot topic in sales especially in this prolonged, down economy.  However, discounting is never the best choice regardless of the situation.  Here is a good Eye on Sales article speaking to that point.

Here is a good suggestion:

The first question I ask anyone who thinks they need to lower their price to close a sale is if they know at least 3 needs the customer has and if they have been able to measure the real value of those needs with the customer.

Exactly.  The author is speaking to qualifying which is the core of all successful selling.  This is why it is of the utmost importance to see a sales candidate’s qualifying ability in your interview process.  Do not provide all of the information to the candidate – hold some back to see if they ask for it.  Do not make the initial interview too easy – provide a little resistance.  These types of techniques give you a glimpse into the candidate’s qualifying which you can’t get from a resume.  If they cannot qualify, they cannot handle money/pricing issues.

If the candidate or salesperson is adamant about discounting, they get caught in a trap:

It’s easy to cut your price. Anybody can do it. But what I guarantee when you cut your price for the first time, you’ll do it again and again. I’ve yet to meet a salesperson who has reduced their price only once.

Always qualify candidates for qualifying to avoid this trap.

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This is one of those topics I always believe people inherently know…and then I come across a robotic salesperson.  Apparently not everyone is aware of this truth.  This quick post from Selling Power speaks to the importance of rapport-building and successful selling (and I lifted the title from them).

A quick refresher:

1. Match your customer’s style. Pay attention to how your customer prefers to communicate and get in step. Does your customer prefer to get right down to business or warm up by engaging in some small talk? What kind of a sense of humor does your customer have? If your customer talks fast and loud, you certainly won’t build rapport by talking slow and soft.

So true and yet many salespeople miss it.  Matching, not mimicking, your prospect is an important tool on a first call.  It is simple to do if you pay attention to their communication style.  The implication here is that you have to listen to them which means you are not talking.  Most of the communication trouble I see when riding along with salespeople is their desire to simply show up and throw up.  We live by this rule – if you are talking, you are not selling.

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