Launching New Leaders

Derrick MoeNo Comments

I’ve been working with a couple clients considering internal candidates for first-time leadership roles.  This process is always tricky.  We can assess the person’s leadership style, aptitudes and motivations, but there are many more aspects to leadership than just these components. This LinkedIn post provides 6 mistakes rookie leaders often make.  The article is on point and you will quickly notice that the mistakes are polar opposites.  Often, a weakness is a strength taken too far.  That being true, a couple mistakes from the article jumped out at me: 2. Too hands off What a lot of people fail to realize is that with every promotion comes more work not… Read More

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Managing Paradoxes

Derrick MoeNo Comments

From the Herman Trend Alert email newsletter (sorry, no link): Agile Thinking Skills. In this period of sustained economic and political uncertainty, and, agile thinking and the ability to prepare for multiple scenarios is vital. In industries that face significant regulatory and environmental challenges, including life sciences, and energy and mining, the ability to prepare for multiple scenarios is especially important—72 percent and 71 percent respectively, compared with 55 percent for the overall population of respondents. To succeed in the changing marketplace of the future, HR executives also placed a high premium on innovative thinking (46.0 percent), dealing with complexity and managing paradoxes (42.9 percent). I couldn’t agree more with… Read More

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Leadership Jargon

Derrick MoeNo Comments

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… Read More

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The Lamest Of Excuses

Derrick MoeNo Comments

CareerBuilder.com comes out with an annual list of Most Unusual Excuses and this year’s list does not disappoint.  Here it is from a press release (my personal favorites in bold): 1) Employee’s 12-year-old daughter stole his car and he had no other way to work. Employee didn’t want to report it to the police. 2) Employee said bats got in her hair. 3) Employee said a refrigerator fell on him. 4) Employee was in line at a coffee shop when a truck carrying flour backed up and dumped the flour into her convertible. 5) Employee said a deer bit him during hunting season. 6) Employee ate too much at a… Read More

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The President’s Club

Derrick MoeNo Comments

This is a funny story from Yahoo: The company that makes Hot Tamales candy offered its sales team an all-expenses-paid trip to Hawaii if it met its annual goals, and a trip to the nation’s arctic tundra if it didn’t. The Just Born team did not meet its target and, on Tuesday, about two dozen salespeople gathered inside the 19-story Radisson hotel — the tallest building in frozen Fargo. Outside, the temperature was 7 degrees. The ground had 2 feet of snow. It gets better: They are trying to make the best of it, with a little humor. They planned tours of two North Dakota wineries and a winter extravaganza… Read More

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Management Mental Short Cuts

Derrick MoeNo Comments

I’m back in my psych book this morning looking for a specific answer to how managers get stuck on “bad” instances from otherwise strong performing salespeople.  I’ve seen this effect with some sales managers who have a generally sour impression of a salesperson who seems to be doing well in the role.  When I pursue the topic with the manager, I typically hear of anecdotal stories with what seems to be innocuous outcomes.  However, the sales manager is still upset by situation. Here is what I discovered in the test book – availability heuristic.  Availability heuristic is basically this – making judgments based on how easily instances come to mind. … Read More

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Sinking Stock Syndrome

Derrick Moe3 Comments

I made that up, Sinking Stock Syndrome, from some interactions I have had recently with a couple of small business owners.  Both owners suffered from this syndrome which had disastrously negative effects on their company, both in revenue and morale. Here is how I define my newly-minted syndrome – an irrational hope that a grossly underperforming salesperson will miraculously turn things around and become a sales superstar. It rarely happens. The problem stems from the business owner who has invested in this failing salesperson.  Notice I used “business owners” – I do believe this syndrome is more prevalent among this group as they are closely tied to the business (i.e.… Read More

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Facebook Faux Pas

Derrick MoeNo Comments

This story will do down in the annals of management malfeasance.  A good friend of mine works for a small company that had an atrocious employee.  This employee couldn’t show up on time (if at all), didn’t seem to know what she was doing and created great dissent within the team.  Unfortunately, the owner made the emotional hire and didn’t want to admit his error, at least not in a timely manner. So this employee continued her employment with my friend’s company for almost 6 mos. and the stories that surrounded her were almost unbelievable.  She missed work all together and offered these excuses: overslept reaction to medication robbed while… Read More

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How To End Time-Management Excuses

Derrick Moe1 Comment

I currently reading Jason Seiden’s new book How To Self-Destruct Making The Least Of What’s Left Of Your Career.  You may have guessed from the title that part of the book is written tongue-in-cheek.  In fact, it is quite entertaining and a fast read. I’ll provide a full review once I complete the book, but I had to share this insightful commentary for all sales managers.  When it comes to excuse-making, one of the favorite topics is time. “I didn’t have time.” “I ran out of time.” “There wasn’t time to ask that question.” These are excuses that need to be corrected.  I realize time constraints do occur, but I… Read More

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Gas Prices Leading To A Sea Change

Lee FratzkeNo Comments

According to a Workforce Management article the buzz at the SHRM conference inolved rising gas prices and the wide-ranging effects it is having.  In fact, the conference’s opening press event highlighted its recent poll showing how companies are trying to assist their workers.  The two most noted solutions were flexible schedules and telecommuting.  Some of the other ways they are helping are four-day weeks, gas cards and car-pooling. John Challenger, CEO of Challenger, Gray & Christmas made a great comment (my bold): These are more than short-term fixes, Challenger says. They are the beginning of a revolution in the office that will result in productivity being the central value of work, rather the… Read More

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