Being Smarter

Ian Mash of Yeoman Consulting helps us to continue the theme of ‘practical ways to help your business life” by sharing some of his experiences of working at the coalface as a senior manager in one of the UK’s largest companies – BT.

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I’ve had time recently to contemplate things I’ve observed which really don’t do business people justice on a day to day basis. Having the right professional skills is such a simple concept – we only have limited interaction with most people and certainly in new situations people tend to make up their mind in the first 10 seconds. Once that has happened it takes a while to change that view.

1) Returning calls

Many of us have answering messages on the phone or mobile which say that we’ll call back. Or indeed, when it’s not convenient at that exact point to talk we say “I’ll call you back at 4.o0, is that ok?”, and then don’t.  We’re all busy people and respecting other peoples time will result in them respecting yours. If you make a commitment, put it in your calendar and deliver on it.

Mark McCormack in his book  ‘What they don’t teach you at Harvard Business School’ said that he didn’t trust managers who couldn’t take their holiday. In his view, if they couldn’t manage to take their holiday, what else couldn’t they manage to do? I think calling back comes into the same category. If you don’t deliver on that commitment, what else won’t you deliver on?

2) Control your emotion

One of the key professional skills in a close knit office environment is controlling your emotions. When I first stated work an old and wise manager who was my boss sat opposite me. One day I had a run in with a peer and wrote a great letter saying what I really thought of him. I felt a lot better. I showed it to my boss and he said “What a great letter, he’ll really know what you think of him after that!” He also said “I tell you what, put the letter in your drawer and then when you come in tomorrow, if you still feel the same way, send it”.

Naturally when I came in the next day I looked at what I had written, put myself in the other person’s shoes for a moment, then ripped it up and threw it away.  The same applies for e-mails, but it’s tragically easy to press send too quickly. Take my old manager’s advice, save it as a draft until tomorrow, it might save you a lot of humble pie eating.

3) Take pride

I see many, many e-mails these days where basic spelling and grammar have been ignored. It’s to the detriment of the writer I’m afraid, and I bet you notice it when it’s done to you. Whether its lack of knowledge or lack of effort I’m not sure, but the time pressure on us and the proximity of the send button doesn’t help. Use spell check and if you’re not too hot on grammar, then look at Lynne Truss’s book “Eats shoots and leaves” which is great. I’m not suggesting at all that I am perfect and I’m confident that there are plenty of errors in this piece, but it’s something to think about.

4) Bother to follow up

I guess this is very closely linked to my thoughts above. I’m constantly frustrated by people promising in a meeting to send me something or to complete an action and then seeing that promise unfulfilled. Is it me or are people starting to get slightly surprised when people actually do what they say they are going to? This certainly applies in the faceless call centre. I’ve had a couple of experiences recently where an email has been sent to me as promised from a call centre and there was a small part of me which was shocked.

Clearly this isn’t a great reflection on society – but don’t fall into that trap! A tip for you – bother to write down the action, however trivial in your to do list and then actually do it as soon as you are able. You will delight people.

5)  Be helpful

There’s a school of thought which suggests if you constantly go out of your way to help others, then you will be set for life. In the time I’ve had to observe some of these business people traits – I don’t see this helpful behaviour happening too often.

I’m a big believer in what goes around comes around. Go and make an effort to help a colleague today – and I mean really help – spend a couple of hours doing something for them that they aren’t able to do. It will make you feel good if nothing else and over time, it will pay back.

Ian Mash will be back with more pearls of wisdom in the next couple of weeks and can be contacted on +44 7860 621976 and via email at ian dot mash1 at btinternet.com

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The Being Smarter team has a lot on its plate at the moment and we would all love to read more, but fail dismally. There’s one book however that the whole team has read – it’s almost like our induction course and it’s called the E-Myth. If you are starting or running a small business – it’s a must read.

Today, I wanted to pull one of the key concepts from that book and show how it really can work. It features as #26 in the popular 51 lessons learnt in year 1 as an entrepreneur post.

The book addresses the age old problem of going from startup to 50 person company. How do you as an entrepreneur keep the ethos and style of the business alive whilst expanding? How do you as an entrepreneur let go of responsibility and trust others? How do you as an entrepreneur ensure that letting go does not affect quality of the final output?

Michael E Gerber is a bit of a genius. He’s been there and bought the t-shirt. One of the many excellent tips I’ve taken from this book, which has stayed with me is to create an org chart from the outset. That’s exactly what I’ve done as the founder of Being Smarter Ltd which now has two other businesses under it’s umbrella – The 8.45 Club and TargetstoProspects. I have a very clear idea of how the organisation needs to look and with a £0.5m worth of investment I could fill every position tomorrow and move the company on at great speed, but…

Clearly that’s not a practical solution – and so the second part of his advice is to put YOURSELF into every position in that org chart. Write the manual for every job – document everything – and become expert in every position. Pin it on your wall and stare at it every day.

Your key to success then is slowly back filling those positions using smart recruitment techniques once the cash starts to flow and you can afford to employ people.

At the moment, I’ve got three people on my org chart and about 15 positions with my name on it. That would explain why I don’t sleep a lot – but at least I can see a way forward. Can you?

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This is just a short post – but hopefully a thought provoking one, based on an experience of mine today.

I had a really great lunch today with a colleague/friend who I have huge amounts in common with. She sorted out the venue – and I’m pleased to announce it here – The Golden Pot, in Hampshire, UK.

It’s a lovely, traditional English Pub, as you’ll see from the photos. My friend goes there a lot – and I could see why.

The owner, who served us went out of his way to help us have an enjoyable meal. He actually asked a question I’ve never heard before in a restaurant when he was seating us – “What time do you need to be away?”.  He knew it was a business lunch – we must have looked busy, and so he wanted to ensure his timings fitted around us. He could hurry things along, or keep things relaxed, depending on the timescales we gave him. Brilliant.

He was a smart guy and I bet he also knew he could maximise the revenue earned from us if he got dessert and coffee served in time. If he delayed – we’d spend less – but I also bet that wasn’t why he was doing it.

Whilst ordering, I mentioned I had to catch a train to London from a small station nearby. I didn’t know the area and he told me I should allow 30 minutes. When we got up to leave (on time) – he was there WITH A MAP – so that he could best direct me to the station.

No one does this stuff… no one. And it’s so simple.

There – go ponder. When did you last go the extra mile?

It’s always great to write on subjects dear to your heart and ones based on personal experience. Today is both.

I’ve been lucky enough to watch many great presentations, speeches and seminars over the last few years, however have also been incredibly frustrated that no one apart from those in the room at the time can benefit from the experience. How long does it take event organisers to pull good speakers together? How long does it take speakers to put their materials together? Days? Weeks? And it’s all over in a few hours.

Ever cooked a roast dinner for 12 people? Spent 6 hours preparing it to see it all eaten in 15 mins? Well it’s the same thing with events, except with a roast dinner, I’m guessing you wouldn’t want to keep it for ever…

Today and tomorrow our team is working with one of our partner companies to record an expert seminar, given only to a select few. The speaker is then going to spend some time with us after the session, recording in a green screen studio and we are then going to turn the whole event into an ’8.45 Club’ style course for them…

So what’s the point of all this?

1. The presentation which has taken many hours to put together will not be lost forever. It can remain a useful asset for years after the event.
2. An audience other than the limited few that could make it to London on that specific day can now benefit from the material.
3. The company putting on the event can leverage this material with other clients – possibly even sell it, because of its value.

And how will it be presented?

1. The material will not be presented as a giant, unmanageable block of 2 hours, it will be turned into an engaging video training course.
2. The 8.45 Club style of training means it will be delivered to email inboxes, first thing in the morning, in bite-sized chunks of ten minutes per day, perhaps for a couple of days of week for a month or so.
3. Learners can now benefit from this session without leaving their desk and still be at their desk by 9.00.

I believe that’s win, win, win…. and possibly win.

How are you leveraging your next event? http://the845club.com/bespoke

Ian Mash of Yeoman Consulting helps us to continue the theme of ‘practical ways to help your business life” by sharing some of his experiences of working at the coalface as a senior manager in one of the UK’s largest companies – BT.

Most businesses are people businesses in some shape or form. You rely on both the skill and intelligence of your staff in any given situation to keep the wheels rolling on the right track. That isn’t to say that those skills can’t be improved though…

It’s a part of any manager’s role to work with his or her people, giving them regular constructive feedback and helping to improve skill gaps. No end of year appraisal should be a surprise to the appraisee. These days there are lots of ways to address skill gaps from the traditional face to face course, through management books to the more modern and innovative online courses like The 8.45 Club. (unprompted – Ed).

Over the years I have only ever had one person push back about learning or improving skills, and that person was almost terminally self critical and lacking in confidence. Over time we addressed this by discussion and their attendance on a course on self perception. Later this manager was able to run and successfully manage a team of 40 disparate staff. The comment was made to me by the manager that they were now doing things that they never thought they would be capable of. It’s great to see this happen.

An important point from my perspective is that this isn’t about finding a course and putting the person on it. You can help to define the skills gap, but they need to take the action to select and get on the course. I hate it when the trainer goes around the room asking why people are there and someone says ‘my boss sent me’. Its not a good start and frequently those people just don’t get as much out of the training.

When you have a high performing team, you’ll know not just from the quality of the output but also from the fact that your colleagues keep poaching your people ‘because they’re so good’. It’s frustrating perhaps, but there is really no bigger compliment.

Ian Mash will be back with more pearls of wisdom in the next couple of weeks and can be contacted on +44 7860 621976 and via email at ian dot mash1 at btinternet.com

I only discovered RSS about 18 months ago and I don’t think it’s too much of an exaggeration to say that it has changed my (business) life. It is an enabler… it makes you smarter… and it helps you in managing knowledge - giving you an edge over your competitors and colleagues.

I naturally spend part of my day sending people information I think might be relevant to them – to help them in their jobs. To make them look good… to even make them money because of the usefulness of that information. I suspect many of my friends and colleagues think I sit there all day researching for them. I don’t. I let the Internet do the hard work for me…. I then sit back and watch.

RSS… Google Alerts… Google Reader. Three technological terms that if you don’t understand in business today then you are most definitely at a disadvantage.

You’ve seen the RSS icon a thousand times haven’t you? A million times maybe… have you ever thought to click it? to investigate what it might do? Possibly not.

Make a resolution today to get to grips with RSS… get to grips with Google Alerts and Google Reader. Then tell us below how amazed you are.

Intrigued?

The secrets of Managing knowledge are here… click the video to see the first session completely free.

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We are pleased to announce today on Being Smarter another guest blogger, Ian Mash of Yeoman Consulting here in the UK. Ian helps us to continue the theme of ‘practical ways to help your business life” by sharing some of his experiences of working at the coalface as a senior manager in one of the UK’s largest companies – BT.

He starts today with a top tip on trend spotting.

Assimilating data quickly is a true management skill. Some managers can look at a page of figures (in for example a business case) and start asking deeply searching questions immediately. They can see anomalies and trends just from looking at the figures. However, not many of us can do this naturally and we have to rely on tools and techniques to guide us through.

Prior to working my education was science based but I didn’t have any business training per se until I did my MBA and that gave me a few tools to use.

But, the most useful everyday financial tool to me, is just a simple hand drawn graph to spot the trends.

You can do a very quick graph on excel if your drafting skills are poor.

It’s amazing how just say 4 data points drawn can show the anomalies in the trend that don’t immediately jump out of a financial analysis on the page and give you the leverage to start asking searching questions. Why does profit drop in year 3? Why is there a disproportionate capital spend in year 4? Etc.

It won’t give you the answers, but will start sensible digging with you and your team.

Ian Mash will be back with more pearls of wisdom in the next couple of weeks and can be contacted on +44 7860 621976 and via email at ian dot mash1 at btinternet.com

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My wife is recruiting like crazy at the moment and I feel her pain… she works for a large corporate and the red tape around the recruitment process is a total nightmare. Of course it has to be done fairly and correctly, but it got me thinking that there must be a better way.

We’ve compiled a top 5 thoughts on how to recruit smarter. If you would like to add to the list – feel free below.

1) Is it time to ditch interviews?

How much can you really tell about someone in an hour’s interview? What if they interview badly and are plain nervous? What if they turn up 10 mins late because of a traffic jam, but interview really well? You then face a big dilemma.

As ever the marvellous Seth Goddin has some thoughts on this subject. I wholeheartedly agree with his approach, because I’ve done it!

2) Look online – but not the way you think

There are a number of fascinating stories around how people have been proactive online to secure their next dream role – so why not take advantage of the creativity which is out there and go search them out. Assuming you are looking for a dynamic, innovative, creative think outside of the box type of person, reach for the Google button. BUT whatever you do – don’t go near a jobsite. Instead use some of the keywords you associate with the job and see who crops up.

One of the fascinating stories we’ve found is Steve Chazin. He was made redundant from Apple, having spent nearly 10 years there. Instead of following the traditional path, Steve started a blog and wrote the e-book, Marketing Apple. He now does his dream consulting job, all because people found him as opposed to him finding them.

3) Generation Y – know your audience

Recruiting is a two way process – your candidate needs to actually like the look of your business and want to work there. Think about that as they sit across the table from you (assuming 1 doesn’t apply). Generation Y expects a lot. They want to know that your business is forward thinking. They want to know there’s opportunity. Most importantly they need to know they are going to like YOU. So sell yourself during the interview process. It’s like buying a house – ask yourself how gutted you would be if you lost that person to the competition.

The excellent folks at Tomorrow Today talk about this a lot. Here they talk about the war for talent.

4) Think about the cost of recruitment

Not something you necessarily think about, however if Microsoft can reduce their recruitment costs – you can too.

5) References

Be very sceptical of anyone who can’t provide a reference with a phone number. Where policy allows, ALWAYS call a reference before any offer of employment is made. It’s amazing the number of people who a) don’t bother and b) rely on written references. In 1 minute we’ve just found a dozen sites offering fake references, which we’re certainly not going to link to here!

Have a list of questions in advance and CALL at least one person. Doing that will be far more enlightening than requesting three written ones.

BONUS POINT

If you come across someone during the recruitment phase who clearly needs advice on how to come across at interview. Be a good citizen and point them at this Selling Yourself resource.

Happy recruiting.

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