win Archives - Dennis E. Gilbert

30
May 19
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Workplace Winning Costs, But How Much?

Tags : costs leadership win workplace winning

A little friendly competition isn’t bad. It certainly can motivate and inspire. The spirit of competition is strong, it can create a lot of action. Workplace winning can cost a lot too. Have you assessed the price tag?

Friendly Competition

Set the goals. Feel the stretch. Size up the competition. Plan to win.

There are a few ways your workplace can become competitive.

The top salesperson.

Employee of the month.

The quest for recognition and illustrated appreciation.

Debates in meetings.

Pay by merit, not seniority or credentials.

Does your workplace support one or more of these motivational drivers? Internal competition is often friendly, yet it can also derail.

Mediocrity

Some people will defer instead of compete. They will take a lose-win approach. Their mindset is, “I’m not going to win so I’ll make an excuse and lose.”

She has all the good accounts.

Bob is a workplace version of the teacher’s pet.

No one ever really observes my work; they don’t understand my contribution.

I’m not a quick thinker. I refuse to debate issues.

Jack has been here longer he should have a higher pay rate.

These are most likely opinionated excuses, not facts. When we set ourselves up to lose there is not any reason to do more or be more. Couple that with limited accountability by a supervisor and at best you have mediocrity.

Workplace Winning

The workplace winning continuum is broad. Mediocrity may mean complacency. On the other end of the scale inappropriate competition and the quest to win can derail team trust and commitment.

Both represent costs no organization can afford to pay.

Properly structured, internal competition can be a great morale booster. Strong teams win the prize. It is a win-win. The organization wins and so do the employees. Customers often win too.

This means one simple truth. The win is counterintuitive and expensive. A win-win-win is what you should seek.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

14
Feb 17
-

Build Customer Relationships and Long-Term Wins

Tags : customer service long-term relationships win

Sometimes the problem with, “Get the deal now!” is that it doesn’t build anything. When you’re trying to build customer relationships are you focused on a short-term fix or long-term gain?

Get the dime in your pocket now and worry about tomorrow later might sometimes seem like the best tactic. After all, you’ve achieved a win. Leading early is often good, but it doesn’t guarantee you’ll finish the race or win the game.

Short-Term Fix

Sometimes the short-term strategy creates a long-term loss.

You might push to close a sale even when it doesn’t align with the customer need. Perhaps you’ll persuade your way with a suggestion of scarcity.

Alternatively you might try to shove your way around with fear by pushing hard for the extended warranty. As a final stand, you might jump up and down, pitch a fit, or hold your breath until you get a yes.

When your short-term strategy is over will you still have any long-term customers?

Build Customer Relationships

There are a lot of businesses that don’t have continuous daily transactions with the same customer.

The realtor, the plumber, and the consultant, when they’re doing their job right it isn’t about a one and many, it is more about a one and done. With a job well done their customers might not come back around for many months or even years.

When you’re considering the customer experience, their satisfaction, and relationship longevity, it has to be built on long-term values, not on short-term wins.

Your culture and brand aren’t built overnight and neither is your reputation.

When you’re building a lasting impression, creating long-term value, and doing it with customers who trust you, you’ll create the kind of win you need. You’ll create a customer experience where the story of your quality and commitment are told, over and over again across time.

The thing of it all is people still talk, and more importantly, they get social, on-line. Some proclaim that word-of-mouth is now world-of-mouth. I think they’re right. What talk will you create?

Long-Term Win

A quick fix or short-term win to put a dime in your pocket today might not be a long-term win. In fact, it could have the biggest cost of all.

Build customer relationships and go for the long-term win.

– DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and corporate trainer that specializes in helping businesses and individuals accelerate their leadership, their team, and their success. He is a four-time author and some of his work includes, Forgotten Respect, Navigating A Multigenerational Workforce and Pivot and Accelerate, The Next Move Is Yours! Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

Dennis Gilbert on Google+

06
Oct 16
-

3 Tips to Pull You Towards Your Goal

Tags : goals pull push roadblocks win

Push or pull, which is the best? Recently I wrote about the concept of push or pull and decided it may be important to explore several tips for how to create less push and more pull when moving towards your goals.

While it is often easy to consider strategies and describe tactics that can help you or your team to stay motivated and move closer towards your goal, the biggest challenge comes from the execution. In short, it is easy to talk the talk, but more difficult to walk the walk. Here are three tips to help keep you or your team navigating a path that is less push and more pull:

Count past wins. Too often individuals and teams get caught up in reliving past failures. If you’re taking risks to move forward you’ll most likely encounter some circumstances or situations that could result in failure. Of course the good news is that we can learn from our mistakes or failures and that will better position us for new growth. What is important here is to examine past wins, count those, keep track of them, and relive them. What you focus on is often what you get and the most important tactic will be to keep reliving wins. After all, you are a winner!
Make roadblock images smaller. We all form images in our minds. When we are listening, thinking, and even observing we store images that are connected to our thoughts. Those images can be of success, or they can be of roadblocks, hurdles, or past failures. If all that you think about (or “see” in your mind) is the disastrous and painful disappointments that are unfolding for your future, you’ll have to continue to have more push and less of the more desirable pull. Make any of those unfavorable images smaller or replace them all together with images of goal attainment and success. Athletes sometimes refer to this as visualizing the win, getting the trophy, or having a record breaking performance. The same is true for personal or business goals.
Get excited. When you start focusing on past wins and visualize yourself positioned in future success you’ll be more excited about what is happening. Remember that push is hard and pull is easy. When you allow the excitement to pull you closer to the goal everything will start to click and you’ll have more energy for momentum and less wasted effort (mental or physical, or both) spent on things that don’t really matter.

I often tell people that there is no rocket science involved, but knowing and understanding the concepts is very much different when compared with implementing them. Your challenge is not to know them, that is the easy part, your challenge is to implement them and do it over and over again until you’re completely programmed for pull, instead of push.

– DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and coach that specializes in helping businesses and individuals accelerate their leadership, their team, and their success. He is the author of the newly released book, Forgotten Respect, Navigating A Multigenerational Workforce. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

Dennis Gilbert on Google+

07
Oct 14
-

Goats, Fish, and Slopes

Tags : climb scapegoat spirit success win

Scapegoats, red herrings, and slippery slopes, workplaces everywhere are filled with these social and sometimes cultural complications. Most employees come to work expecting to succeed, not fail, and while it often takes team effort to succeed, individual choices and mind-sets have a lot to do with the outcomes.

Your workplace life is what you make of it, and your focus, a diversion, or even ignorance of what surrounds you may make the difference for your future. People come out for the drama. They show up for the “we are doomed party” and not because they want to fail but because it is sometimes easier to claim your fate is not in your own hands. The unspoken and underestimated belief may be; follow, it makes you less responsible.

Although some do, not everyone wants to lead. Many desire to earn a reasonable living with a reasonable job. We’re all lucky, because individually we measure our success. The problem is that everyone’s chance for their own style of success is conditioned by their individual spirit, added together and multiplied by the spirit of those around them. Negativity and blame subtract from spirit, and build momentum for a loss.

Sometimes it isn’t who you are, but where you hang out. When you celebrate doom, you get gloom. Look for wins, not losses, find solutions instead of chronically highlighting problems. Most important of all, celebrate by doing more of what you do great.

Get out of the barn, away from the stream, and get traction for the climb—your climb, to your style of success.

– DEG

Photo Credit: Tom Roeleveld

Dennis Gilbert on Google+

08
Jul 14
-

Win, Happiness, and Wealth

Tags : happiness luxury wealth win winning

There seems to be a correlation in many minds that winning equates to happiness. That happiness only exists if you win, that you must win at all costs, and that wealth is winning.

If you’re working towards a win at all costs, then the temptation to alter the goal, take unusually high risks, or worse, engage in unethical conduct to further support your obsession with the win; may lead you to a path you didn’t think you would choose. But you did, or perhaps, you will.

You may feel like you don’t want to do it personally, but your boss, your neighbor or your judgmental mother-in-law is ready to remind you of your position in life, wealth, and assumed happiness. This creates pressure for action.

Winning is great, but it isn’t always about the win. More real estate, faster cars, and bigger investments don’t necessarily lead to more happiness. Winning at all costs bears a price tag that most shouldn’t be interested in paying. The price may be too high when happiness is confused with wealth and wealth is confused with winning.

Measure for happiness and not the win, measure against past performance first, bench-mark data second. Focus on why you do it, not what you get paid. Focus on the people who benefit from the product, good, or service.

The win exists at happiness, not necessarily luxury, money, or what someone else defines.

– DEG

Photo Credit: Jeff Belmonte

Dennis Gilbert on Google+

Tag Archives: win

May 19

-

Workplace Winning Costs, But How Much?

Friendly Competition

Mediocrity

Workplace Winning

Feb 17

-

Build Customer Relationships and Long-Term Wins

Short-Term Fix

Build Customer Relationships

Long-Term Win

Oct 16

-

3 Tips to Pull You Towards Your Goal

Oct 14

-

Goats, Fish, and Slopes

Jul 14

-

Win, Happiness, and Wealth

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