StandOut (12 page)

• Life moves so quickly that we can get lost. We rely on you to tell us what you are certain of, what we can rely on. Your discipline is the catalyst for our creativity, our experiments in how to go above and beyond what the client or our colleagues expect.

• Pay attention to the team’s energy. If you can’t get a sense for it, find a trusted partner to help you gauge it. Sometimes you miss important clues about how we feel because you’re so focused on direction or process. Create a team-member panel to allow direct interaction with a group of frontliners. This is a great opportunity for us to share what it really feels like here. Be sure to keep it casual and we’ll open right up.

• Show us your personality. We sometimes feel we don’t really know you. Take the time to tell personal stories and we’ll feel more connected. You don’t have to be the entertainer at the front of the room, just look for opportunities to make personal connections as you walk the office or share our successes.

• Ensure we’re prepared. Clearly articulate the what, how, and why of quality and the steps we need to take to maximize it. Create opportunities for us to practice activities that might be expected of us. That way, when it comes time to measure the quality of our work, we won’t fear this event; we will look forward to it.

• Acknowledge when it is time to give up on an idea, project, or person. Your commitment to finishing what you started can sometimes blind you to negative realities.

How to Win As a Manager

Equalizer
: Your strength is the certainty you give me. I always know what to expect from you, and so my relationship with you is predictable and therefore secure.

• You work hard. I see how committed you are to getting things done, and this encourages me to contribute my best to help achieve our mutual goals.

• I can count on you. If you make a decision or a promise to me, I know that you’ll see it through. Keep the same integrity around your meetings and one-on-ones. The more I see that these are meaningful to you and not simply an activity that you tolerate, the more present and accountable I will be.

• Revisit SMART (Specific Measurable Actionable Relevant Timebound) plans every three months without fail. The clarity and certainty this provides me as your employee keeps me focused and engaged. It also speaks to your dedication to my development and success at the company, and so increases my loyalty.

• Support our training and lead by example by keeping yourself up-to-date as well. Take over for us now and then to keep abreast of system changes and challenges. Also, if you’re able to use a system more efficiently than we are, that’s probably a good opportunity for you to give us additional support and training.

• You are thorough and organized. I’m confident that what you assign is what needs to be done. This frees me to focus without concern that my efforts will end up on the cutting room floor.

• You treat people fairly. You consider how decisions will impact workloads. You evaluate how to distribute bonuses equitably. You ensure that acknowledgments are universal. You do your best to keep things equal. Sometimes, though, note when I’ve gone above and beyond and look for a special way to recognize me.

How to Win in Sales

Equalizer
: Your strength is your responsibility. Keep doing exactly what you say you are going to do, and soon you will have established the kind of trusting relationships that your competitors will find hard to break.

• In all aspects of work, your standards of equity and justice guide the way you do business. Your principled approach builds credibility as we, your clients, come to rely on your integrity.

• You feel intense accountability to make good on a promise or commitment you have made. Your obligation to fulfill commitments pushes you to find a way to follow through and deliver. Your resourcefulness sets you apart.

• Take the lead in structuring the proposal. You attend to the details that matter. I will notice this careful planning and will want to return to it when I am thinking about a future purchase.

• Your judgments are fair and appropriate. Your levelheaded style will serve you well as you manage through the challenges of an account relationship. I will always know I will get a fair hearing from you.

• Be careful about putting down your competitors when you believe they’re behaving unethically. I don’t need to be caught up in the drama. Just tell me what makes your solution different and why I need it.

How to Win in Client Service

Equalizer
: Your strength is your sense of fairness. I can rely on you to do what is right.

• I trust you. You tell me the good news. You tell me the bad news. You don’t put a positive spin on a negative reality. You just tell it like it is. At times I’d appreciate a little more empathy, but I’ll always take the truth over sugarcoating.

• You do what you say you are going to do when you say you are going to do it. I value this immensely. I may not always get the answer that I’m hoping for, but at least I’m not wasting my time waiting.

• Set a standard for follow-up and communicate that to me. When I provide feedback about my experience at your company, whether positive or negative, tell me when I can expect to hear back from someone. Keep the time frame as short as possible. This shows me you respect me and genuinely care about my experience.

• You follow the rules. At times I wish you would bend them to suit me, but I do appreciate the assurance that the next customer is not going to get a better deal or a different answer than I am. This level playing field calms me and gives me confidence.

• On the other hand, not every situation deserves the same response, so be inquisitive. Take the time to ask your questions in order to discover what might be different about my particular situation.

• Acknowledge a legitimate gripe. I can sense that you care I’m treated fairly, so always admit when your product or service has missed the mark. You’ll keep my business.

INFLUENCER

The Definition

You begin by asking,
“How can I move you to act?”
In virtually every situation, your eye goes to the outcome. Whether you are in a long meeting at work, helping a colleague get his work done, or talking a friend off a ledge, you measure your success by your ability to persuade the other person to do something he didn’t necessarily intend to do. You may do this by the force of your arguments, your charm, your ability to outwit him, or perhaps by some combination of all of these. But regardless of your method, what really matters to you is moving the other person to action.

Why? Partly because you see where things will lead if the other person doesn’t act, and partly because you are instinctively aware of momentum and become frustrated when you bump into someone who slows your momentum down—but mostly because you just can’t help it. It’s simply fun for you to influence people’s behavior through the power of your personality. It’s challenging and mysterious and thrilling and in the end, of course, it makes good things happen.

You, at Your Most Powerful

• In any situation you set your sights on action. “What can we
do
?” This is your question.

• You are, in general, impatient; but you are especially impatient when you know that a decision should be made. You see what will happen if we don’t act. You see around the corner, and so it burns you to think about what inaction will cause.

• Others feel you are persuasive. You engage with them directly and you convince them. All of your relationships have this quality—you, moving others to act.

• You are driven by the feeling of progress and are acutely sensitive to momentum. You sense when it’s building, when it’s peaking, and when it’s gone.

• You listen well, but you listen for a reason: either so that the person can talk herself into a place where she is psychologically ready to act, or so that you hear which triggers to pull in order to propel the person to make a decision. Listening, for you, is a precursor to action.

• You can be a charmer and are good at winning people over so that they like you. You do this because you know that people are willing to do more for those they like. Being liked is a powerful (though not the only) precondition for getting the other person to make a decision.

• You can be very direct. You feel strongly that problems are solved only when they are confronted head-on. You are not interested in dancing around a subject. Instead you use conflict as your preferred method of resolution.

• When you meet resistance you become energized. You know you get better when people give you reasons why they can’t act. Each reason is something for you to engage with, something you can grab on to and use to get them to see why making a decision is so necessary.

• People sense your desire to move forward, and it comes across as self-assurance—even confidence. Occasionally as arrogance. Sometimes you might even put others off by challenging them more than you should—meaning “more than they would like to be challenged.”

• People realize that you have an agenda. And people like you most, indeed trust you most, when your agenda is clear.

How to Describe Yourself (in Interviews, Performance Reviews)

• “I’ve found that I’m more decisive than most people— and more impatient. I like to move fast.”

• “I’m at my best when I’m challenged to persuade someone to do something they didn’t necessarily intend to do.”

• “I initiate a lot. I’m always telling my colleagues what they should do. I suppose sometimes I might push too much, but we always get a lot done.”

• “I hate playing politics. I’m a very up-front person and don’t function well in a world with a lot of backroom action.”

• “I get a thrill from the ‘ask.’ What’s the worst they can say? ‘No.’ Well, so what? The sun’s going to rise again tomorrow.”

• “People seem to want to do more for me and with me than they do for other people. I enjoy getting people on my side.”

• “I don’t like talking around a subject. I like getting to the point. I think that’s one of my strengths: focusing people on what the
outcome
is.”