Get From A To Z Faster! by Neil Love

Neil Love from A to ZGetting 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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SWSWSWSW: Some will, some won’t, so what? Someone (else) is waiting by Judy Banko

judy-for blog

In the mid-seventies, my chubby, gruff, cigar-smoking sales manager, Bill, taught me the art of dealing with rejection—a lesson that’s helped me, and it can help you too whether you’re in sales and marketing, general business, or just plain life.

I was one of the first women in Texas, and most likely, one of the first in the country, to sell business equipment. I sold copiers! We were called sales ladies then. Some of the best advice Bill offered was if I spent too much time fretting over prospects who don’t buy, I wouldn’t have enough time to find those who would buy.

That lesson applies to any situation in 2013. SWSWSWSW: Some will, some won’t, so what? Someone (else) is waiting.

When I went into my own consulting and training business (me and everyone else), I learned the lesson all over again.

SWSWSWSW works in other areas too. Say you’re a fundraiser for a worthy cause, and you ask someone for a sizeable donation, but they say no. Remember, SOME WILL (donate), SOME WON’T (for a host of reasons), but SO WHAT? Losing time and energy worrying about it will not give you time to get to SOMEONE ELSE IS WAITING to give.

See how it works?

My daughter, a successful business owner in Dallas, understands SWSWSW. A single mother when she started her business, Julie had little choice but to keep on keeping on despite rejection. The SWSWSW approach helped her close deals and build financial strength for herself and her children. Had she stressed over the “NO’s”, she would have had to throw in the towel and return to the job market.

Speaking of the job search process, the SWSWSWSW strategy is highly effective here too. If one prospective employer turns you down, remember: Some Will (hire you), Some Won’t (you’re not quite the right fit), but So What? Some other company is waiting for your skills and talents, so keep on truckin’!

For the past two years I’ve searched for a medical professional who could tell me why I’ve been in pain. When I say I have seen every type of specialist there is, I mean it! Each time, the doc would say, “No, there’s nothing I can do for you.” Or, “See this other guy, it’s in his specialty.” Rejection time after time after time.

There were so many times I wanted to throw in the towel and take the well-meaning advice of friends and family—go on pain killers. There were times when I began to believe what several doctors said: there was nothing anyone could do for me and I’d have to live in pain for the rest of my life. But, Thank God I’ve had the support of an awesome good spouse who helped me fight the rejection and continue looking for answers.

At last I found a physical therapist that told me what had happened to my body to cause the pain and began treating me. After a month of treatments, my pain level went from a high of 10 to an average of 8, and then to a 4-5. If this is the most relief I ever get, it’s plenty good, but Beatrize and I are working to get it down much lower.

The next time you face rejection of any kind, try the SWSWSWSW approach. Some will accept you. Some won’t. So what? Someone else is waiting for you!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Judy Banko is the Owner of SofTel Consulting Training (specializing in business-to-business telephone sales & customer service).

She is also an University Russian and English Instructor. The first female sales person of business equipment (copiers, etc) in Texas in the 1970’s.

Spent five years living, working and cruising on our 45-foot sail boat.