strategy | Brenda Eckstein International

Growth and Personal Strategy

November 1, 2012 by Brenda Leave a Comment

‘Growth’ is an important theme in our exciting new 6-week ‘EYES’ (Enhance Your Executive Skills) course which combines individual spontaneous ‘Executive Coaching’ sessions with personal strategy facilitation and group training. The purpose of this unique course is to ‘kickstart’ participants’ performance so that they can begin 2013 on a high note. In the first three sessions the themes were Fun, Leadership, And (continuous improvement) and in the fourth session on November 1 2012 we encompass Growth.

We need to see our business and private lives in context. Unless we fully appreciate our current status, how can we set goals or move forward to a new specific location? Participants have insightfully clarified their ‘touchstones’ and values and are currently projecting ‘resources’ to the desired levels for the end of 2013. This week each will establish vision and set relevant, appropriate and achievable goals and tactics. Crucial to this process is clarity on personal ‘critical success factors’.

Let’s have a look at these. In order to successfully achieve their ‘vision’ for the end of 2013, it is critical that they are covering the basic FLAG principles:

F: Maximising Energy (and having Fun!)
L: Leading and being forward-focussed – self and teams
A: Continuously improving - ‘an attitude of positive discontent’
G: Growing (knowledge, skills, competencies)

In addition the following are also essential in achieving personal success:

Spirituality and enriching ourselves emotionally
Addressing the needs of those whom we serve
Being agile and yet ‘grounded’ (mentally and physically)
Networking through positive relationships and ‘connections’
Communicating effectively – finding my ‘voice’
Integrating

Let’s consider each of these headings and the questions that participants should be asking themselves. This is not a comprehensive list, but rather a starting point. Please add your own additional questions:

Critical questions

1. F: Maximising energy (and having Fun!)

Energy is renewable. How am I managing my energy?
In what ways am I building energy through conscious attention to quality sleep and rest, fresh air, foods, liquids, cardiovascular and strength exercises?
In which ways am I honouring my body?
How am I tapping into ‘the wisdom of my body’?

2. L: Leading and being forward-focussed – self and teams

How clear are my vision, goals and tactics?
What am I doing to ensure that my behaviour is ‘forward focused’ on goal-directed behaviour?
How clearly and timeously am I communicating my vision, goals and tactics to my teams (work and home)?
How am I recognising and motivating those in my work and home teams?
What am I doing to empower others so that they can reach potential?
What am I doing to reward or ‘shine up’ myself?

3. A: Continuously improving - ‘an attitude of positive discontent’

How am I honouring my ‘authentic self’ in promoting my ‘personal brand’?
How am I continuously improving the way I operate in all domains of my life?
Pegged against my current status and the status of those impacting on me, how am I ensuring that I continuously use my tactics to move towards my goals and vision?
What routines have I instituted to regularly check that every aspect of my life is ‘the best it can be’? (In other words, how am I practising ‘an attitude of positive discontent’?)

4. G: Growing (knowledge, skills, competencies)

What am I doing to ‘create space’ so that I can grow?
What am I doing to establish new ‘pathways’, learn new things (neuroplasticity)?
How am I going to add value to my current qualifications?

5. Spirituality and enriching ourselves emotionally

How connected do I feel to the universe?
What practices do I engage in?
How am I maximising the incorporation of my ‘touchstones’ into my daily life?
How am I caring for my emotional needs?
What have I done to ensure that ‘reach out’ is a default and that I ‘shine up’ others?
How is ‘being kind to myself’ incorporated in my self-leadership?

6. Addressing the needs of those whom we serve

Who are the people I serve? How clearly have I identified them?
What business, community and private roles do I play?
Who are those people or entities who have power over me?
What am I doing to minimise the impact of those who are toxic to me?
How am I consciously assessing and meeting the needs of those whom I serve (where appropriate)?
What am I doing to be of greater service to those whom I serve?

7. Being agile and yet ‘grounded’ (mentally and physically)

How agile am I? How effectively can I recognise and optimise opportunities?
What am I doing to improve my agility?
What can I do to improve the speed at which I move towards positive opportunities and away from negative influences?
What grounding practices do I regularly engage in?

8. Networking through positive relationships and ‘connections’

How consistently am I genuinely adopting an attitude of ‘what can I do for you’?
How do I go about building and sustaining positive relationships in all aspects of my life?
How am I ‘harnessing the power of collective networking’?
What is my strategy for taking my networking to a higher level?
What am I doing to build and sustain positive relationships?
What does the term ‘federated’ mean to me and how am I incorporating?

9. Communicating effectively – finding my ‘voice’

What am I doing to constantly ensure that I communicate effectively and at the right time?
How am I making sure that my messages have been understood in the way in which I intended them?
How constructively do I deal with feedback (given or received)?
How am I using my voice?

10. Integrating

How am I integrating all aspects of my life?
What should I be doing to find greater balance over all areas of my life?

Reflect carefully on these questions. What other questions should you be asking?

Record your answers and use constructively in setting your plans for the future. Build in tactics that will support your intentions and help you to be the success that you deserve to be.

If you’d like further information on the training we offer, personal strategy, leadership development or executive coaching, please contact me - brenda@146.66.90.172, Phone: +27 33 3425432, Mobile: + 27 82 4993311.

The benefits of excellent Customer Service

July 18, 2012 by Brenda Leave a Comment

During similar workshops on Sustainable Customer Service Strategy, when asked to provide ten benefits, each group develops lists. There is sometimes very little overlap with the input from other groups. Even when consolidated, the final ‘list’ from each workshop varies considerably. This reflects the wide range of benefits perceived in providing a sustainable customer service programme.

If you go to our home-page and then press the blog tag, once you are in that section you’ll see a column down the right and there you’ll notice ‘categories’. Thus it is easy to click the ‘customer service’ section and all the blogs on customer service will appear. If you scroll down, you’ll notice that there have been two blogs on ‘The benefits of excellent Customer Service’ and these arose from workshops held in Johannesburg on July 22 2011 and Durban, July 26 2011. Isn’t it interesting how different those two lists are?

Then have a look at two more lists below. These refer to recent ‘Sustainable Customer Service Strategy’ workshops co-presented with Leon Grové of Leverage and Growth in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. In the first workshop we consolidated ‘tips’ and in the second, ‘benefits’.

June 27 2012 - Pietermaritzburg

Tips on Customer Service

Recruit the right staff – people whose ‘value systems' and ‘work ethic’ are in line with the corporate culture. Then train them.
Consistently implement values and principles. Capture the minds of the staff and get ‘buy in’.
Encourage a culture of improvement including training and reading.
Clearly identify and define customer needs. Develop an attitude of ‘customer focus’ and ‘customer orientation’ as this is critical to success.
Communicate effectively with customers. Handle feedback from customers timeously and act on it where practical and beneficial. Let the customers know what steps you have taken.
Behave in a professional manner and at all times uphold the company image. Strive for success in a harmonious way.
Act in a respectful way, being aware of cultural differences and perceptions.
Be agile in your approach. Recognise and optimise opportunities in the shortest amount of time possible. Respond to market changes and respond to new products.
Deliver what you promise and continuously improve wherever possible. But be consistent in maintaining your standards.
Interact with external and internal customers on a personal basis, thus building positive relationships. Visit people. Use the telephone more. Use e-mail less.
The sale is part of a process and even when your product or service is in the field, and money in the bank, there is still part of the process to complete. Provide excellent and consistent after-sales service. This keeps customers happy and enhances the value of your products.
Set up an informal task team and key people to regularly fine tune processes and implement new ones. Use all available resources to get the job done. Tailor service to suit customers’ specific needs through use of technology.

July 5 2012 - Durban

Excellent customer service:

Has to be built into the mission statement so that it becomes a focus for staff and customers. This needs to be visible to help everyone ‘live’ the mission.
Develops, builds and sustains long-term positive relationships with internal and external customers.
Encourages customers to be loyal and supportive and these customers pay!
Ensures that customers enjoy the experiences involved in dealing with you and your business.
Creates a framework of positive relationships where there is an ‘absence of malice’ when things go wrong. There can also be a direct means of dealing with issues (e.g. ‘Hello Peter’).
Provides a way to handle complaints correctly so that dissatisfied customers can become loyal customers.
Generates a sense of personal achievement. Improved morale leads to growth through increased turnover.
Gives customers a way to positively refer future potential customers to you. Reputation for excellent customer service captures new customers.
Incorporates ‘following up’ and this reminds customers of our existence and generates more business.
Gives a competitive advantage enabling this business to become the ‘preferred supplier’ and a market leader through an increased share of the market. This safeguards the business as it becomes more sustainable in the long term.

For more information on our ‘in house’ workshops on ‘Sustainable Customer Service Strategy’ please contact brenda@146.66.90.172. There is also more information on my website.

Personal Resources

May 23, 2012 by Brenda Leave a Comment

When facilitating ‘personal strategy’ during ‘leadership development’ sessions or developing a ‘three year vision’ during ‘networking tactics’ sessions, I like to set the scene by asking participants to imagine themselves three-years hence. Sometimes we prefer to take a one-year time frame. Life moves fast!

We start by considering ‘personal resources’. This helps to focus the participant’s thinking and ‘ground’ the development of our vision statement. Although I provided a similar list in an article in October 2011, I am sharing the updated questions I developed for a client yesterday. Please let me know if you think of other questions I should include. Thank you! Please imagine what you’d like your life to look like in three years time and answer the questions below which relate to personal resources:

Resources

Financial

What capital do you wish to have accumulated?

What are you earning?

What income are you generating on a regular basis?

How are you doing this?

How have you invested your money?

Employment

Where are you working?

What are you doing?

What opportunities are there for future growth?

And how are you going to achieve this?

Human

Which groups of people or individuals are significant in:

your personal life?
your business life?
your community life?

Time

How are you allocating your time in:

Your personal life?
Your business?
Your community life?

Energy

How are you building your personal energy?

How are you conserving it?

How are you allocating or spending it?

Accommodation

Where are you living? Describe.

Knowledge and qualifications

How have you progressed in the last three years?

What new skills have you acquired?

What new qualifications have you achieved?

What are your goals for the next period?

Transport

What daily means of transport do you have or use?

Brand

Your personal brand is a resource.

How have you built it?

How are you promoting it?

Coaching

Yes, coaching is a resource.

What have you done to make sure that you are exposed to the right coaching for you?

How are you benefitting?

Network

Your personal network is a powerful resource.

What are you doing to build and maintain relationships?

How are you improving your skills as a networker?

What are you doing to expand your network in a meaningful way?

Technology

How ‘up to date’ are you?

Can you effectively incorporate the latest relevant and available technology where beneficial?

Other

Please add your own questions here.

If you’d like to know more about our facilitation of leadership development, personal strategy, networking tactics, integral coaching or any of our other services, you are welcome to contact me - Phone: +27 33 3425432, Mobile: + 27 82 4993311, brenda@146.66.90.172.

Customer service: turning ‘stumbling blocks’ into ‘stepping stones’

February 14, 2012 by Brenda 2 Comments

In the last two posts, we have looked at positive ways of overcoming obstacles in our private lives.

But we can use the same principle in our business activities, too. For example, in customer service, there will be times when our service is not as good as we’d like it to be. The way we handle those adverse situations can build ‘customers for life’. Having a solid ‘bounce back strategy’ in place helps to turn ‘stumbling blocks into stepping stones’.

Let me tell you a personal story. My life is busy, really busy. Years ago I found a way of delegating the purchasing of groceries so that I could use that shopping time more constructively. Consequently my cupboards have always been fully stocked, regardless of whether I’m on a trip or ‘on home ground’.

My system is as follows: I prepared stocklists (you can see that I come from a retail background!) of the ideal level of each item in every grocery, laundry or ‘cleaning’ cupboard in my house. My housekeeper was then taught how to ‘take stock’ every Tuesday and in the third column fill in the missing items. She then faxed that list to the grocery store, and they made up the order and delivered it, placing the goods in my kitchen. ‘Housekeeper Nellie’ then unpacked and marked off the items, placing them in the correct cupboards. At the end of each month I paid the account. Simple!

This system has been effective for 20 years. Or, at least it did work until………….Wembley Supermarket was assimilated into a group and we reluctantly moved to another store. Let’s call it ‘J’. But they were great – until they were taken over by a ‘bigger and better’ store. Oops! Things started to go wrong and matters became worse when ‘J’ was closed and absorbed into the bigger store. Nothing was ever right. We were constantly ‘stumbling’. Ordinary things ordered, like a popular brand laundry powder were not delivered. We battled on for a few months as we had put so much effort into trying to salvage an unsatisfactory situation. Then the crunch came.

A year ago, I noticed that my secretary was having to retype the orders for the housekeeper. That was ridiculous, a waste of time. The reason was that the grocery store’s fax machine was not working. And yes, in South Africa, people do still use faxes – not often – but in the case of my housekeeper, she is not able to use a computer for e-mailing. And the grocery store receives many faxes.

After repeated phonecalls I went in to see the PR lady who treated me with disdain and told me to fetch my order and bring it in. So, she was expecting me to get in the car, travel home, collect my order and bring it back to the store? I suggested that she sends the driver to collect it. ‘We can’t do that… it costs us money’. So, it was okay to tell one of your best customers to waste her time driving home to fetch the order, but not okay to go and collect the order!

Two days later she phoned and told me that her boss, the owner had said that as we were such dissatisfied customers, we should rather shop elsewhere. I was stunned. It was easier to lose a customer than to fix your fax machine?

Well, I immediately phoned their competitors and the owner welcomed me as a customer. The first week, I repeated the order I’d placed with the ‘Low Service Mentality’ family grocery store, and found that our new ‘Family Store’ was 10% cheaper on all items I could compare. That was an unexpected bonus!

The previous store presented many ‘stumbling blocks’ and the new store has opened up many new pathways for us. For example, a few weeks ago I was starting a new 12-session ‘in house’ training course in ‘business communication skills’. The workbooks we prepare are 150 pages, so I need a special type of lever-arch file for each participant. I usually buy them at ‘The Mall’ or at a large ‘office supplies’ store. But I had seen similar files at our ‘family grocery store’.

I was running out of time and decided to phone on the ‘off chance’ that they still had them in stock. (The ‘back to school promotion’ was over.) Estelle, the person responsible for our account phoned me back in 5 minutes, confirming that she had managed to locate 15 black files and that was exactly what I needed. I was so happy!

Then she continued: ‘Mrs. Eckstein, can we please deliver them to you’? I was ‘blown away’, but had reservations. I needed them that afternoon, and they would most probably deliver only the next day. I would rather drive down and fetch them. She reassured me, ‘No, Mrs Eckstein, we’ll deliver the files now’. I couldn’t believe it. In 20 minutes from when I made that first phonecall, the files were at my office! This is just one example of the way they ‘go the extra mile’.

I have dealt with ‘The Family Store’ for a year now, so they have delivered over 50 orders to me. I commend them on the consistently outstanding service provided. It starts with the owner and filters down to the staff at all levels.

This is an excellent example of turning ‘stumbling blocks’ into ‘stepping stones’. What business examples do you have?

Contact me on: Phone: +27 33 3425432, Mobile: + 27 82 4993311, Email brenda@146.66.90.172

Questions regarding your resources

October 26, 2011 by Brenda Leave a Comment

Choose a time period – for example, three years time. Be specific and write down the date. For example, if you have chosen three years as your period and you are answering these questions in August 2011, you would date your answers as August
2014.

The purpose is to paint a picture of what you want your life to look like at that time. Stretch yourself into your vision but be realistic. Are all your answers SMART? (Specific? Measurable? Attainable? Relevant? Time-linked?)

Enjoy this exercise.

Financial
What capital do you wish to have accumulated?
What are you earning?
What income are you generating on a regular basis?
How are you doing this?
How have you invested your money?

Employment
Where are you working?
What are you doing?
What opportunities are there for future growth?
And how are you going to achieve this?

Human
Which people are significant in - your personal life, your business life and your community life?

Time
How are you allocating your time? This is a big question as it covers: personal, business and community

Energy
How are you building your personal energy?
How are you conserving it?
How are you spending it?

Health
What are you doing to eat healthily?
Physically, how are you going about being the best you can be?

Accommodation
Where are you living?
Describe.

Knowledge and qualifications
How have you progressed in the last three years?
What new skills have you acquired?
What new qualifications have you achieved?
What are your goals for the next period?

Transport
What means of transport do you have or use?

Brand
Your personal brand is a resource.
How have you built it?
How are you promoting it?
How congruent is it to your business brand?

Coaching
Yes, coaching is a resource.
What have you done to make sure that you are exposed to the right coaching for you?
How are you benefitting?

Network
Your personal network is a powerful resource.
What are you doing to build and maintain relevant relationships?
How are you improving your skills as a networker?
What are you doing to expand your network in a meaningful way?
What groups of ‘like-minded’ people do you belong to?
What other groups give you a strong sense of belonging?

Technology
How ‘up to date’ are you?
Can you effectively incorporate the latest available technology where beneficial?

Once you have completed these questions, ask yourself what is missing. What other questions should be
answering?

You now have a fairly good idea of what you would like your future to look like. This is part of your vision, but
not the whole thing. If you’d like further help, you are welcome to contact me.

Networking Tactics

May 9, 2011 by Brenda Leave a Comment

We all prefer to deal with people we know and trust. To become the ‘person of choice’, the ‘firm of choice’ or the ‘organisation of choice’, we need to build positive relationships. Networking skills can help us to do that.

You can expand your personal network by improving the quality of relationships within your existing network, and also by adding new contacts in a purposeful manner.

Personal networks are dynamic and constantly changing. Most people would like to expand their networks and at the same time maintain quality and integrity. In order to do this, you need to pay attention to all the aspects of building your network. These include improving your skills, identifying your network, organising and updating the information and sustaining relationships. On this firm foundation you can then build an even stronger and more effective network.

We present a ‘one day’ workshop which includes training in relevant networking skills. For example, a simple technique for quality conversation is easy to apply. We’ll also explore ways of developing and expanding the structure of our networks.

Networking is a ‘critical success factor’ in achieving our goals. This workshop will help participants to define and capture their personal three-year vision on a one-page plan together with the networking tactics they have chosen to work on.

You’ll leave the workshop ready to swing into action with your unique ‘one page personal strategy’ and your signed copy of Brenda’s book: ‘Networking Tactics: a guide to achieving success through personal strategy’. As a result of participating effectively in this one-day workshop, participants will be able to:

Understand why networking skills are critical in achieving professional/business success
Appreciate that personal networking is a process – and not a ‘transaction’
More easily hold quality conversations which help in building positive relationships and also lead to more confidence in attending social engagements
Apply skills practised at the workshop and enhance their own style of networking
Share ideas on sustaining and expanding their personal networks
Incorporate all stakeholders in the networking mix
Set personal strategy incorporating their three-year vision, values and networking tactics
Complete their personal one-page plan for achieving their personal three year vision and know how to use their personal networking tactics to achieve success
Implement their personal programme.

Use Objectives For Success

May 7, 2011 by gary Leave a Comment

Most of us have personally set or have been provided with objectives. Objectives are commonly used in organizations of all size. However objective setting is often haphazard and objectives are not aligned towards organizational strategy. A framework for effective objective setting is also often lacking.

Peter Drucker, the well known management ‘guru’, introduced and recommended Management by Objectives (MBO). MBO, very simplistically, is about defining and communicating, at all levels of an organization, which objectives need to be realised in order to meet the aims of the organization (strategy, values and so on). Drucker was one of the first proponents of using objectives to meet the goals of an organization, for objectives to be complimentary and for formalising the objective setting process.

Below is a practical and simple guide for implementing the basics of MBO.

Objectives must align with Strategy

The Objective Setting Process
Per the diagram above, lower objectives are set for the specific audience and align to the higher objectives and ultimately organizational strategy. All objectives work towards common organizational goals.

Objectives should be set for departments and individuals. For example, a strategic objective may be ‘Improve market share of supermarket soap sales to 10% by March 2011’. Every sales person may then be given an objective of ‘Sell 500 cartons of soap to supermarkets each month’ (which will result in the 10% market share being reached). Each individual sales person will then be set further aligning objectives; Joe the salesman may be great at selling to existing customers however needs training in attaining new customers therefore may be set an objective of ‘Attend BEI training in personal networking techniques by March 2010’)

So, what makes a good objective?

Good Objectives are SMMART Objectives
SMMART objectives are extremely effective in aligning employees and the organization towards common goals. When setting objectives it is important that objectives are SMMART:

Specific: The objective must not be too broad and must be clearly defined.
Measurable: You must be able to measure success against the objective.
Measured: Measurement of performance against the objective as well as feedback to the person/people to whom the objective was set is critical.
Achievable: It must be realistic to achieve the objective.
Relevant: The objective must compliment higher objectives and strategy and be relevant to the person/department for whom the objective is being set.
Time-based: Don’t leave objectives open-ended. Have a specific date as to when the objective must be met.

MBO in Small Organizations
MBO was originally designed for large organizations. MBO is however often more effective in small organizations (and is usually far simpler to implement). Small organizations may benefit greatly from the entire organization having common objectives. Need assistance with aligning your objectives with strategy? Contact Gary at +61 (0)4-1092-3445, gary@eckstein.id.au, http://eckstein.id.au

Business Blogs

May 7, 2011 by gary Leave a Comment

Brenda Eckstein International is pleased to begin this new series of weekly blogs with an article by associate, Gary Eckstein, business consultant based in Sydney, Australia.

Why have a business blog
Blogging started as a means for anyone to be able to communicate information on the Internet; it was less expensive (often free) than maintaining a website and far more personal. Blogging has evolved significantly since the early days and the divide between websites and blogs has become increasingly blurred. The fundamental difference between a blog and a website (in the traditional sense) is that a blog contains frequently added content in the form of ‘posts’ (sometimes called ‘articles’).

Blogs for business public relations
Many organisations use blogs for public relations purposes. Blogs are an ideal means of putting across a message to interested readers. The content of a blog is managed by the blog owner meaning control of the ‘message’ (content) being communicated. Because most blogs also allow feedback from readers it is a great way of engaging potential from existing customers as well as attaining feedback from them. Once your blog is established it also provides the opportunity for a more direct style of marketing. Quality blogs, over time, attain regular readers which results in a willing sales channel!

Search engines and blogs
Google, Bing and other search engines love blogs because of the frequently added content and engagement with readers. Blogs also often attain more referrals from search engines than traditional websites. Of course the advantage of visitors being referred from the likes of Google is an expanding audience of potential customers. Increasingly quality websites include blogs as part of the business website itself due to blog benefits (this website is a good example of a combined website and blog).

Linking strategy, branding and blogging
It is essential for business blogs to align the ‘look and feel’ and content of the blog posts to business strategy. As an example there is little point in publishing a post about the advancement in quality of low cost suits when you sell premium ‘made to order’ suits. Blog posts must support the objectives and strategy of the business.

Of additional importance is recognising that a blog is an ideal means of positioning your products or services and brand in the mind of the consumer. It is a critical mistake to confuse your consumer in terms of your positioning (again the suit example used previously is applicable; if you sell premium suits then don’t confuse your customer by communicating the benefits of low cost suits).

Finally in relation to strategy, a blog must be considered a deliberate and long-term activity. As branding is a sustained and deliberate set of activities, so is a blog; benefits won’t be realised overnight however the long-term advantages may be significant.

How to start a business blog
So, where does a business start in relation to blogging? Unfortunately there is usually a divide between ‘I.T. people’ and ‘business people’ (i.e. although I.T. people are good at I.T. they often lack business and strategy understanding). It is therefore important to find and employ the services of a consultant who is able to cross the I.T./business divide. This consultant should then be tasked with planning for, and implementing a blog which will work towards the aims of your particular business. Blogging is typically far less costly and more effective than other forms of P.R. (and marketing) however does require new posting of content occasionally e.g. once per week.

Gary is a business consultant based in Sydney, Australia but operating internationally. He assists organisations in getting business benefits from I.T. Contact Gary , Telephone: +61 (0)4-1092-3445, gary@eckstein.id.au, http://eckstein.id.au

Growth and Personal Strategy

The benefits of excellent Customer Service

Personal Resources

Customer service: turning ‘stumbling blocks’ into ‘stepping stones’

Questions regarding your resources

Networking Tactics

Use Objectives For Success

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