Get From A To Z Faster! by Neil Love

Posted on June 3, 2015February 26, 2020 by Kimberly Wiefling

Getting from “A to Z”
You want to get from where you are to where you want to be faster – more clients, better clients, more satisfaction, less wear and tear.

My manager clients want to get from A to Z faster too.
Their journey from “A to Z” often involves one of these challenging transitions:

Manager Transitions

Moving from individual contributor to manager
Moving from managing locally to managing globally
Moving into cross-functional initiative management
Moving from a career flat spot to a career high

Organization Transitions

From struggling team to high performing team
From questionable initiative to strong initiative
From misfiring organization to thriving organization
From small company to big company

Let me write to you as if you were one of these managers.

What You Need
You need the right strategy for moving ahead. That requires knowing alternative ways for getting to where you want to be and which way fits best for you and your situation.

You will want to know what issues you will likely run into and how to deal with them. And, you will want to find ways to help you stay positive when things do not quite go the way you want them.

What Might Be Helpful
What could be attractive is behind the scenes support that is convenient, efficient, delivered in bite sized useable chunks, affordable and non-intrusive. Support that includes someone who serves as your strategy partner and progress accelerator. Someone who could give feedback on your thinking and your strategies, plans and issues. And support that provides access to deep insight surveys, proven best practices tools and referrals to other resources that accelerate progress.

Your Thought Partner
The beliefs of who you partner with are key to your comfort level and your success. Here are mine.

Have Fun
I believe people are more creative, clever and thoughtful and less stressed when they work and think in the pleasant, safe, fun environment. I will create that with you. Be forewarned, I like to laugh and make people laugh. I am hoping you do to or can expand that particular little skill. The goal is to make our work together something you look forward to not just for help but for enjoyment.

Make It Convenient
To make your support fit with your dynamic schedule, you can schedule 30 minute guidance sessions with me using the Online Appointment Calendar to pick the time slots that work for you. No emailing back and forth to schedule or reschedule. And if your availability changes, no problem just reschedule yourself.

Start Outside In
The long term key to success is to sense and react to the priorities and trends of your clients and potential clients. What specifically is the tough situation they are in? What are the specific attributes of the solutions do they want? What makes them buy and not buy? How will they see you as different, unique, and best suited to work with them?

Provide A Thought Space
You will want a forum where you can be more insightful and find your own answers not someone else’s recipe. There are business and marketing experts for hire who can offer you answers, but those answers may not be quite right for you and your situation. You won’t own them, feel comfortable with them, do them. I focus on asking you the right questions so that you come up with your own best answers. And yes, I do provide lots of suggestions, feedback and tools when I sense the right moment.

Learn While Doing
Moving from strategy to execution can be riddled with challenges, surprises and missteps. You need someone who is your steady partner and provider of tips and best practices as you move through your journey. A coach that can pull from over 400 assessments, guides, checklists, models, templates, processes and sample documents would enable you to make faster progress easier. You do not have to reinvent the wheel and can leverage proven best practice strategies and tools.

Beyond Tools
The support you need is more than a set of tools and processes. You want the opportunity to have important conversations where you are heard and get helpful insights. You want someone to challenge your assumptions and ensure you are true to your commitments. And someone you can role play situations with to build the confidence and proficiency you need to get where you want to go.

Can I Help?
If any of this rings true for you, my online guidance sessions and deep insight tools can enable you to get where you want faster with less wear and tear.

I have been doing management consulting for over 20 years. I have been fortunate to consult to a wide variety of clients in many industries and all levels. I have served as an executive, program manager and internal consultant at VMware, Cisco Systems, Amazon Lab126, Sun Microsystems, Adaptec, HP, TI, and GE. Client companies have included startups, small firms, mid-sized companies and the big brand companies.

I now serve as an effective and efficient teacher and guide for those who want to leverage this experience. I would be happy to share with you the lessons learned and the skills I developed through twenty years of experience in making organizations, projects, managers and consultants more successful.

If you would like more information, you will find it below.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Neil Love – For over 25 years Neil has been working with executives to improve performance and innovation in organizations, processes and initiatives. His most recent major clients have included Amazon, Cisco Systems, VMware, FLIR and Sun Microsystems. He has either led or been a core team member of $1M and $2M best practice programs that found the very best ways to make companies and departments more productive, more agile and more effective. One of these programs resulted in a savings of $75M and had over 50,000 participants.
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Are You Ready? by Amy Walker

Posted on May 24, 2015May 11, 2015 by Kimberly Wiefling

(First Published at http://amywalkerconsulting.com/blog/ on April 27, 2015)

Want to know what almost stopped me from starting my company?

I am not a fan of the solo-preneur business model. Gasp!!! Did I just say that? To thousands of small business owners? Many of whom are solo-preneurs?

Absolutely! There is one major flaw in the solo-preneur model and it’s YOU! Your time and availability limits your income potential. Your knowledge and skill set limits your income potential. Your mental and emotional capacity limits your income potential. Your scarcity thinking limits your income potential. YOU limit your income potential. Not because you are a flawed human being, but because you are a human being. You are not perfect. You get overwhelmed. You run out of time. And you have strengths in certain areas of your business while you are deficient in others.

I’m not being mean, I’m being honest. I know it because the same is true in my business, and in the hundreds of other business owners I coach.

To get past the solo-preneur hump, you have to hire! Hiring scares a lot of people. And I understand why. It is time consuming and expensive. No one you hire will do it just like you do it. No one will care as much about your business as you do. And when they mess up, it effects your business. It can be scary. In fact so scary, that I almost sabotaged my company before it even started.

2.5 years ago, I was an independent contractor working for an amazing training and personal development company. I had a great job. I had great paychecks and I loved the people I worked with. BUT, I was getting ready to have my 5^th son and I knew it was time for me to have more time freedom and to stop hiding behind someone else’s brand. But I did not, under any circumstances want to run a team of people. I wanted to do it all myself. In fact, I remember consulting with a friend, who is also a genius in business, and asking, “Can I do this and really be successful if I never hire more than 3 people?” His answer was “Sure, why not!”

He lied. We’ve talked about it since and he lied on purpose. Thank Heavens he did or I might never have started my company. He knew I was limiting myself and my companies potential.

I really believe that to get beyond 6 figures you have to hire help. In fact for some businesses, you will have to hire help to even get to 6 figures.

Here are some questions to ask yourself to help you see if you need help now, and where you need it!

Is my time maxed out? If your time is maxed out, you don’t have room to increase your income.
Could I handle the workload if I doubled my income this month? If the answer is no, you will not be able to hit those types of numbers. Even if you got there, you would not be able to maintain those clients.
What areas of my business are not getting done because I either don’t know how to do it, or don’t have time to do it? Notice I did not ask what is not getting done because you are scared of it or avoiding it. If that is your reason, I say get over it and just do it! But if you really don’t know how or don’t have time, you need help in those areas.
If you could free up 10 hours a week for more income producing activities, how much more income could you bring in? If that number is more than you would pay someone to take 10 hours off of your plate, it makes sense to hire.

I’ve definitely had challenges in working with my team. But the challenges are small compared to the rewards. If I was trying to do everything myself, I think I would have maxed out at $50,000-75,000 a year. I have 5 kids. My time is limited, and if I had stayed a solo-preneur, I guarantee my vision for the company would have remained limited. My team is what inspired me to see my company on a bigger scale. My team is what helped me to hit 6 figures my first year. My team is what drove my sales to an over 400% increase our second year in business. My team is what makes it so I never give up, even on the hard days. And my team is who supports me and makes me feel like I am never alone in this journey.

Are you ready to retire the many hats you wear in business and start hiring?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Amy Walker is an International Executive Business Coach and CEO/Founder of Amy Walker Consulting. As a Featured Professional Speaker she has shared the stage with some of the top names in the industry including Willie Jolley and Delatorro L. McNeal II. Amy is a Master of Sales and has written sales scripts for billion dollar companies and organizations. She has been regularly featured on television, radio, and print. Amy is passionate about Women in Business, Making Businesses Thrive, and Balancing Business and Family. She is the happily married mother of 5 boys.
Website: www.amywalkerconsulting.com
Facebook: Amy Walker Consulting – https://www.facebook.com/AmyWalkerConsulting
Twitter: @amywalkercoach – https://twitter.com/AmyWalkerCoach
Instagram: amywalkercoach – https://instagram.com/amywalkercoach/
Youtube: Amy Walker Consulting – https://www.youtube.com/user/awalker2911
Linkedin: Amy Walker – www.linkedin.com/in/amywalkerconsulting

How To Sell To Indecisive People by Amy Walker

Posted on May 11, 2015May 11, 2015 by Kimberly Wiefling

(First Published at http://amywalkerconsulting.com/blog/ on September 16, 2014)

They want it, they need it, but they just can’t commit! It’s tricky. I get it. We don’t want to lose the sale by giving up too soon. But we don’t want to be strung along missing out on other sales while we do everything in our power to get this person to sign.

The first key to selling to indecisive people is to recognize what type of indecisive person they are.

1. People pleaser: People pleasers want to make everyone happy with them and have a very hard time saying no. Because they are taking you into consideration, they have a hard time getting clear on what they want. You can sell to a people pleaser by manipulation, but DON’T! You will have more cancellations, and dissatisfied clients if you take this route. And both of those are expensive. Instead use verbiage like, “It seems like you are having a hard time deciding. If you take me out of the picture, what would you most want to do? Because even though I would love to have you as a client, I wouldn’t want you to decide to work with me unless it is absolutely what you want.”

2. Co-dependent: Co-dependent people struggle to make decisions on their own. They want someone else’s input. Sometimes that other person really does need to be involved in the decision and sometimes they have no business being involved in the decision. The key to selling to this type of person is to find out who the other person they need to talk to is. The second step is to ask, “Does this person play a role in (your business, your household management, your daily hair styling etc.)?” If they do play a role and should be involved in the decision, simply ask, “Can we get them on the phone or schedule a time when the three of us can meet?” If they are not involved ask the question, “What do you think they will say, and why is it important to you to talk to them first?” Honestly, I could write an entire article on how to close this one, but for the sake of keeping this article from becoming a novel we’ll leave it at that. This will give you some crucial information to get the conversation started.

3. Over Analyzer: This person needs a lot of details! They will want to read everything you have printed, they will want to interview your clients, they will want to scope out your website, and they may want to pull a back ground check on you. To sell to this type of person DO NOT ask them to make a decision before they know what they need to know. You will break rapport. Asking this type of person to act without information is like asking them to jump off a cliff when they don’t know what is at the bottom. Instead, ask the questions, “What do you feel like you need to know in order to feel good about this purchase?” “What other questions can I answer for you?” And “What type of information would you like on this?” They may need to read through information on their own, but whenever possible try to get all of their questions answered during your meeting. Make sure you set a follow up call with a very firm date and time. Set the follow up call for a day or two later. Don’t let them go a week, because during that time they will come up with another question, not have an answer and decide that it isn’t going to work for them.

4. Feeler: Feelers need to feel good about the purchase and no amount of logic or information will replace them having an internal confirmation about what is right to do. These people will need to pray about it, sleep on it, consult their crystals, do muscle testing, or any other host of things that are completely unrelated to your conversation. Believe it or not, I am a feeler. I do get a lot of information and ask questions so I can see the big picture, but when it comes down to it, if I don’t get a good vibe, I will not work with someone. But that is not the kiss of death! Feelers need an internal confirmation, but they can also get that pretty quickly. You just need to ask them questions that will get them looking inside right now. Use phrases like, “I understand and I want you to feel good about this decision too. Can I ask you a question? As we have gone through the information about (my product, service etc) what is your heart telling you? Are you feeling comfortable with me? Do you want a few minutes alone to check in and see if you feel like this is right?”

5. Green Lighters: This group wants the perfect time. They want the stars to align. They want all of the lights to be green before they start out. This is the most challenging group for me to work with. I will have people who really want to coach with me and just need to wait for the right time, and a year later they are saying the same thing and again the next year, same conversation. It’s crazy! Your goal with these people is to help them understand that if they choose not to move forward, they will not receive the benefits they are looking for. I do everything I can to close these people on the spot because I have found they are the least likely to close at a later date. I will ask them questions like, “Why does this feel like the wrong time?” What would need to happen for this to feel like the right time?” If they say something like, “The fall would be better.” Don’t accept that answer! They are just trying to put off making the decision. If they have something concrete like, “I’m having a baby in 3 weeks and it’s not a good time.” You will want to accept that answer, it’s legit!

All of us are indecisive at one point or another. Don’t get frustrated with your clients, just patiently resolve their concerns. They are human and so are you! If you want to attract people who are more ready to make decisions, get clearer in your own decisions. Don’t ask people to do what you are not doing. What brand of indecision shows up for you?

Shirley Wiefling, an Inspirational Early Women Entrepreneur!!

Posted on March 13, 2015March 13, 2015 by Kimberly Wiefling

“I’m particularly thrilled to see Shirley’s story here because . . . she’s my inspiration, my closest friend, and . . . I’m very fortunate to say that I’m her daughter. I’m so proud of you, Mom!” – Kimberly Wiefling, Author, Scrappy Project Management and Scrappy Women in Business

Mother by Day, Entrepreneur by Night: Shirley Wiefling Shares Her Inspirational Experience as a Woman at the Forefront of Business.

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Dr. Diane Pennica – 2014 DAA President’s Award Recipient

Posted on March 6, 2015March 6, 2015 by Kimberly Wiefling

“Few people have such impressive careers as Dr. Diane Pennica! But what really impresses me about Diane is her humanity and her compassion for others. She is an inspiring world-changer whom I am proud to call a close personal friend.” – Kimberly Wiefling

Dr. Diane Pennica received her Bachelor of Science in Biology from the State University of New York at Fredonia, her Ph.D. from the University of Rhode Island, and did a post-doctoral fellowship at the Roche Institute of Molecular Biology.

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Stand up and Sing: Pamela Rose Shares Her Story of Celebrating Women in Early Jazz and Blues by Shannon Galiotto

Posted on February 3, 2015February 25, 2015 by Kimberly Wiefling

Pamela Rose presents Wild Women of Song is a captivating showpiece celebrating the lives, times and music of the Women songwriters of the Tin Pan Alley era. With dramatic projected images, and superb storytelling, Rose artfully delivers a cultural retrospective while treating the audience to a wonderful live jazz and blues concert.

I had the wonderful chance to interview Pamela on the phone. Let us hear her story.
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Interview with Barbara Nunes by Mahima Dutt

Posted on October 31, 2014February 25, 2015 by Kimberly Wiefling

Talking on the phone with Barbara Nunes, a member of Board of Trustees of the Fremont Union High School District was an honor. Nunes has served as a professor in the SJSU Urban High School Leadership Program for administrative credential candidates; as co-director of Tomorrow’s Leaders Today (a community program for teens); and as a representative on the National Merit Scholarship Advisory Board. She was employed by FUSHD for over 35 years and is caring, hardworking and passionate about her career in education. Nunes discusses her personal reasons for entering the welcoming field of education and what her job has been like a trustee on the board. She also shares memorable aspects of her work as well as learning experiences that helped her grow and succeed.

Q: What prompted you to pursue a career in the field of education?

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Blessings from the School of Hard Knocks by Dr. Kevin B Kreitman

Posted on May 26, 2014February 25, 2015 by Kimberly Wiefling

Maybe it was my name.

My parents named me Kevin, although no one had the courage to tell me how, uh, unusual a name like mine was for a girl. That is, until 3rd grade when a little boy named Kevin joined the class and I asked the teacher why his parents had given him a girl’s name.

I was also blessed with parents who told me that I could do anything I wanted to do that I put my mind to. I’m sure they didn’t intend for that to include my early career as a motorcycle mechanic and several years as an owner-operator in the long-haul trucking business.
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Closing the Confidence Gap: Stop Waiting for Permission! by Kathy Klotz-Guest

Posted on May 20, 2014January 30, 2015 by Kimberly Wiefling

(Originally posted at Kathy Klotz-Guest’s Linkedin Blog on May 06, 2014 – www.linkedin.com/in/kathyklotzguest)

Last week, I wrote about the Confidence Gap for women and how important it is to step up to uncertainty and re-frame the way we look at risk. In that post, I talked about a key concept from improvisation – the cornerstone principle of “yes, and” – that we can use to exercise our risk-taking muscles and build confidence.

Closely related to confidence and risk is the issue of permission. Too many people are waiting for validation and permission to do the most important thing in the world: be themselves and do the things they are passionate about. Stop waiting for the external OK to be you and build what you need to build in the world.

If you want to be great, stop asking for permission.

Truth In Comedy and Life

There’s truth in comedy. In improvisation, we endow our on-stage partners with character traits: gender, relationships, names, idiosynchrasies, etc., in order to build great scenes.

It’s also important to endow yourself on stage and off. In improvisation, I often hear from women, “Why am I always endowed as a mom, or a teacher, or a girl, or a whatever?” That usually means an uninteresting and weaker character. There is some truth here – men tend to endow women with certain qualities. Hell, I’ve said this very thing in frustration a number of times. Years ago, a great male friend and fellow improviser finally said this to me: “What the hell are you waiting for? Why don’t you jump in there and force the guys to keep up? Don’t put up with that!” He was right. I’ve started a business and an improv group for Pete’s sake. Yet, here I was expecting someone else to endow me, to recognize me…to give me permission to shape my on-stage character. Why? What the hell! It made no sense. I should know better, right?!

Listen, we can’t control what others do. We can control our choices. Where is it written that we can’t self-endow? We don’t have to wait for permission. Permission comes from within.

The next time I was endowed as a mom, I endowed myself as a werewolf. And a mom. See, they are not incompatible. You want to endow me as a mom? Fine. I will be the biggest, most badass mom – on my terms so I am “yes, and-ing” others ANDmyself.

That’s the key. You must “yes, and” yourself, too. Give yourself permission to be, do, explore, discover, and create.

Successful People Don’t Wait for Permission; They Choose Themselves

Dharmesh Shah of Hubspot calls it “selecting yourself.” You get to discover yourself and act on your talents. You don’t need to wait for someone to fund you or give you that column in a magazine, or promote you, or tell you how how great your ideas are. Get your ideas out into the world. When you see a need, step up and use your talents.

Here are some ways to give yourself permission:

1. See it and do it. If it’s something that compels you, find a way to do it. Partner with others if you need to. Start first. You don’t have to know all the answers ahead of time. Life isn’t a straight line; it’s a series of comically (at times) twisted turns.Visualize the start and end. You don’t have to know all the pieces in between just yet. Just start. Somewhere.

2. Speak up. If you feel you have something to say and contribute to a conversation, don’t talk yourself out of it. Your point of view is as valid as someone else’s. How many times have you wanted to say something and didn’t? You censored yourself. Unless it’s a tacky comment or an expletive in an inappropriate setting, what’s the worst that could happen if you speak your mind? You would be surprised at the support you might get.

3. Dare to ask the basic questions. You won’t look silly; you’ll learn.

4. “Yes, and” and ask, “What if?” Engage in possibility thinking. Asking “what if” can be a very powerful tool to jump start possibilities and new ideas. “Yes, and-ing” others and yourself can create a positive dynamic. Remember, “yes, and” doesn’t mean wewill do it; it’s simply opening up a space that says to people, “I hear you.” And when you do this, most people will reciprocate that positive energy.

5. Stop apologizing when you don’t need to. “I’m sorry, but….this may be wrong but….” Nope. Stop. You have a right to your opinion. Own it. We use an apology to soften our stance or lower our status to be equal to others. While men do this, too, women do this far more often in my personal experience. It signals a lack of confidence and that we are waiting for approval. You don’t need no stinkin’ badges and you don’t need no stinkin’ approval. Unless you are a jerk or hurt someone’s feelings, you don’t have to apologize for an idea, a presentation, a failure, etc.

6. Take your seat at the table. Stop waiting for the invite and invite yourself. Donna Brazile, well known democratic strategist and CNN contributor, tells a great story of how she wasn’t invited to a meeting early in her career. So she found out what time the meeting was happening and showed up. All the seats had been “taken” by briefcases – where men had claimed their spots. While they standing and discussing, she marched in, physically moved aside a briefcase and took her spot! She spoke up at the meeting and acted as if she belonged there. The results? She was invited to future meetings. She stopped asking to be invited.

You have something to say and something to offer the world. When you own who you are unabashedly and act according to your values, you step into something pretty great – your own power.

Got that blog or book you want to write? That company you want to start? That non-profit that means so much to you? Or maybe it’s just being a badass mom in an improv scene.

Whatever it is, do it. Stop waiting for permission. Choose yourself.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Kathy Klotz-Guest, A marketer and storyteller, helps clients tell compelling stories that get results. The founder of marketing strategy and communications firm, Keeping it Human, she also performs improvisational comedy and kicks jargon’s butt.
Email: kathy@keepingithuman.com.

The Age of SMART Posted by Sue Lebeck

Posted on April 14, 2014January 30, 2015 by Kimberly Wiefling

(Originally posted at Sue Lebecks’s blog on www.innovatingsmart.org, March 15, 2011)

Yeah, this use of the acronym “SMART” is our own invention. You won’t yet find it in the mainstream (though we’d love to change that over time.) We came up with it to try to articulate specifically what we were learning about sustainable systems, and what it really meant to be “sustainable”.

The word “sustainable” itself is not terribly inspiring. Intuitively, it means something on the order of “continuing to exist”. In recent years this has become a central and often elusive goal for many living systems, social contracts, and businesses (but that is a blog post for another day). Still — “sustainable” is hardly a juicy word to the average innovator (is there such a thing as an average innovator? also a blog post for another day).

So why “SMART”? We began with the word “SMART” because increasingly the ways we manage infrastructures, treat social systems and conduct business have begun to appear to the forward-thinking observer to be (now don’t hate me) — STUPID. Yes — stupid. In fact, the long-term effects of the status quo were dramatized in the popularly and critically acclaimed and innovatively distributed 2009 British film The Age of Stupid. Set in 2055, it tells the story of what happens when the world refuses to change its systems and infrastructures, revealing the “reasons” for this lack of action as, well, lame and stupid.

Now, not everyone is moved by alarmist movies. But even the CEOs and EVPs of the largest corporations in the world, upon coming together to contemplate the future circa 2050, came away saying this about everything from energy and materials to people and values:

“Business-as-usual cannot get us to sustainability or secure economic and social prosperity. These can be achieved only through radical change, starting now.”

Translation: the way we have been doing business, though once thought to be smart, is no longer so. If we continue in the same way going forward — we are stupid. This, however para-phrased, comes directly from the horse’s mouth. A very SMART beginning.

OK, so remind me — what is “SMART” again? SMART is:

Systems-savvy –
designed with sensitivity to the context of the specific systems and environs involved; also, optimizing the interplay between systems.

Managed intelligently –
managed thoughtfully for best result; also, using sensors/data/analysis/control to manage systems operationally in dynamic circumstances.

Adaptive –
designed to work well in a changing world, in a manner that works with the environment and not against it.

Regenerative – applying creative system interplays, where the waste of one system becomes food to another; closed-loop cooperative systems.

Trusted – reliable, exercising good judgment; honest, authentic, transparent; without this quality, the other qualities can be applied in a misguided or misleading fashion.

These are our design principles for a sustainable world. If you ever forget, just check our SMART Design webpage. One day (and it best be soon), the ideas behind “SMART” will become mainstream, and we will have advanced to “The Age of SMART”.