THE A TO Z OF RETAINING EMPLOYEES BY KEEPING THEM ENGAGED, SATISFIED AND GRATIFIED

Because everyone likes a good list Love ‘Em Or Lose ‘Em Getting Good People To Stay contains 26 chapters (beginning from A and ending in Z) of strategies, ideas, questions and surveys on how to keep one’s best employees. Written for managers of people, the book offers strategy and advice on how managers can keep their best employees to stay, and stay to be productive and performing.

The book may be considered anachronistic given the tough times, but there is no better time than now to keep one’s top employees and, as such, Love ‘ Em Or Lose ‘Em’s concept would be timeless. Also, remember the book is addressing employees one likes to keep. Whether the book is too liberal or enlightened and how the pressures and deadlines of real life come between theory and practice should not be a hindrance in the adoption of all, several or even just one of these notions.
Personally, using acronyms or colloquial would not be my choice, let alone in a book’s title, but there is a plethora of topics and angles considered here. Here are select notes, which are elaborated on in their respective chapters:

A- In its pages the book features reasons why people stay at their work (page 13: exciting work, career growth, good co-workers, fair pay…), offers ‘Stay’ interview questions (page 15: ask, ask, ask for knowing is better than not and superior to guessing)
B- Managers believe money is the most important factor in making people stay and, not having enough to offer, fear asking employees about their needs and wants. The book argues that, as mentioned, asking is nonetheless a must and indeed managers are the prime reason employees stay or go. One’s manager is where the buck stops. Company culture is important, but managers are more germane. Loyalty is to boss, co-workers and work; not to buildings or brands. Managers need to be held accountable for keeping their employees.
C- Managers need to know their people’s talents, offer perspective, discuss trends, discover options, co-design an action plan and then support it. For instance, a vertical promotion is not always the sole option. A horizontal move may be a better fit and more complementary.
D- The authors argue that everyone is prejudiced one way or the other. As such, conveniences and preferences sometimes masquerade as requirements. Trust the employees and they become trustworthy.
F- The chapter speaks to work/life balance and poses questions such as ‘what is the point of a high-power job that makes you miserable?’ Advice: be caring and flexible. Set clear expectations and explain they need to be delivered, but from there offer flexibility.
G- Not all who want to be promoted will leave if advancement is not available, but good ones will leave if they are not challenged. Other options exist and include lateral movements and relocation. Help your employees with their goals.
H- Managers must hire right fits with patience. Listen to candidates and employees and do not hire in desperation. Embarrassingly, the book references itself and suggests leaving a copy of the book on the table during interviews, thus signalling what a great place the company is. On a more modest note, the authors speak to re-recruiting people.
J- Here is something useful: a ‘jerk’ check list. Do you recognize yourself or someone you know?
K- Have fun at work! It makes people more productive and never compromises results. Of course, it has to be in conjunction with achieving company results.
N- Here the book makes a very good point. If a company loses a piece of equipment, say a computer, the police or security is called in and an investigation is launched. Why is the same care not accorded the loss of an employee? According to the book, and oft-cited statistics, replacing a staff member costs twice the amount of the person’s salary and escalates to three times the annual salary for platinum employees.
T- The book insists on truthfulness and honesty. Managers should be candid and discuss the good and the bad. Confidential company secrets and others’ personal information notwithstanding, information is to be shared. Moreover, the sharing should not be restricted to annual evaluation time. As well, share bad information in-person.

These are just overview samples of the book’s content. One must pick all or the most relevant and commit to them. The book does not drill deeply into any one topic and, therefore, is better suited for quick reference, fast learning and quick practice.

Ultimately, if one believes the content, Love ‘Em Or Lose ‘Em is not just pro employee; it is also pro employer.

“HE WHO ASKS THE QUESTIONS HAS THE POWER”

Secrets Of Question Based Selling is an odd title not to mention grammatically suspect. It sounds as if the book is making reference to a methodology that one has to study elsewhere and only then arrive at this book in order to acquire said system’s ‘secrets.’ Speaking of which, the book has over one hundred ‘secrets’ in boxes and captions, yet none of them are actually secrets. They are better described as tips or perhaps factoids. Even if they were secrets, which they are not, surely that can be no more since the book’s publication! Most are self-evident to say the least. Here is Secret #1 for example: “Salespeople are being held at arm’s length, and rejection is making it more difficult for them to stay motivated.” How about “Greater needs cause prospects to feel a greater sense of urgency for finding a solution and making a purchase”? Who knew? Sarcasm aside, and not to dwell too much, what is the book like? Well, it claims to double – not triple, improve incrementally or improve by 54%, exactly double – your sales.

Tom Freese’s book was recommended to me by a sales director and so I began it with anticipation. Nonetheless, it took me longer to get through it than most books. For some reason it was a lengthy and difficult read despite not being a long book or being written in difficult English. The book is likely verbose and has a difficult time getting to the point. It is divided into three parts.

Part I is a short course on the QBS Methodology.

Part II speaks to the power of strategic questioning,

while part III, to the books credit, gets into the Implementation of what one has learnt and moreover delves into the larger sales process including prospecting and presentations. This last part is partially like bonus material. Here Freese suggests taking the price/cost question that inevitably follows a presentation and pivoting it into the next step of the sales process including, but not limited to, asking questions as to where one stands.

QBS is a solid methodology and covers the fundamentals well. Certainly it borrows from a few other systems and gives the reader/learner a solid foundation for sales or a nice compact digest of everything in one place. Unquestionably, the concept of asking and asking and finding better ways of asking is sound and reasonable in sales. Nonetheless, there are several things to argue about. The introduction to the book erroneously claims that most sales trainings are not question-based. This seems inaccurate – unless there are many courses out there that have not crossed my path – yet the premise that questions uncover needs, standing, establish credibility and gain internal champions is spot-on.

Freese’s main hope is to have the reader stand out by improving the chances of a sales win by increasing the probability of success and decreasing the risk of failure. This, so far, is inexact as no two sales are identical and different processes will have to be followed, but having a parameter and methodology is a necessity. Freese is forthcoming in this regard. It follows that Freese believes his methodology of reducing risk increases productivity by increasing wins, enhancing excitement and diminishing rejections is the way to proceed. He notes that the average sale requires approximately five closing attempts which implies a lot of risk. Therefore, instead of sticking one’s neck out, he suggests probing for closure in the right way and at the right time. All this, by sending pings to gauge interest instead of directly asking, which might solicit an outright rejection.

Freese talks about ‘mismatching’ reminding the sellers that customers often engage in it almost subconsciously. People respond in a contrarian fashion. Seller: “can you see how we have the best solution?” Buyer: “well, you are not that good!” Instead of falling into that trap he suggests establishing ‘mutual interest’ which is achieved through strategic questioning until the buyer acknowledges a need. People mismatch because they are insecure and sellers must stop facilitating such responses. This thought suggests pushing for a sale is the wrong approach as it prompts buyers to reciprocate and push back harder. A better alternative is uncovering needs through questioning.

How? Reduce risk by 1- asking more questions and making less statements, 2- be more credible (diagnostic questioning conveys expertise and familiarity), 3 – make them curious, 4- ask, ask, ask and 5- Get into Momentum Selling. Freese wants the seller to become the messenger, not the message.

Here is where Freese introduces his notion of Gold Medals & German Sheppards. Some people strive for something (e.g. organic nutrition), while others run away from certain things (e.g. junk food). Find out which is which and work the angle. Some people might be considering both aspects. Based on that notion, strangely, Freese asserts that with QBS the customer’s personality type becomes irrelevant. That is hard to swallow for this writer. The real game in sales is changing latent needs to active needs (without needs the best salesperson is out of luck). That is, sellers need to transform ignorance into pain as most buyers are in the ‘latent’ category. This is where a process of mutual discovery works, one that turns prospects into informed buyers. Ask questions. Ask questions according to three definitions and categories: 1- Scope, 2- Focus and 3- Disposition. The conversational model of QBS, which is key to relationships, is:

It begins with creating curiosity. Page 104 suggests a script based on that notion (complete with a grammatical mistake) that suggests leveraging a name within the company when leaving a voice-mail or conversing in order to create curiosity in the customer’s mind. “since she (other person at the organization) didn’t know all the answers…” People buy from people and one has to build credibility first. After all, a salesperson does not initially have a relationship with the buyer. To build that employ strategic questioning by managing:

1-  Scope: How broad is your questioning? The more open-ended a question is the broader its scope. Yet, credibility is a prerequisite so open-ended questions are better for expanding questions and not for establishing them. Freese suggests asking a specific question and then delving into a series of diagnostic question.

2- Focus: Escalate the focus. Ask the right questions. Status (opportunity?), Issue (of prospect) and be analytical, Implication (of issue) and make it emotional, Solution (what is it?). Asking “what extent is ___ important” also avoids mismatching. Questions develop the relationship.

3-  Disposition: Since the situation changes it is important to know about the adverse factors involved. Not asking disposition questions or avoiding bad news limits one knowledge. Asking allows control since prospects are often reluctant to share bad news. This is why sellers mistakenly keep asking ‘hopeful questions’ like “we are doing fine, right?” Instead, it is better to ask ‘neutral questions’ like “are we going to hit the end-of-the-month deadline, or are we not going to hit that deadline?”

Additionally, QBS suggests we ask our buyers to become us and ask them what they would do were they in our shoes and what would the outcome of one’s action be. This is an interesting proposition. The book especially suggests trying this with an internal ‘champion.’ This is risky, however. One wonders if completely relying on an internal champion is sane as it might, to some degree, relinquish one’s own first-hand presence.

Selling is a process; but sales processes are no longer linear. Freese notes that some parts are more important than others and need a larger emphasis. On page 167 one comes across the book’s most provocative assertion that “customer is not always right.” If they were they would know everything regarding products and services and that is that. They would not need the salesperson. As such, the salesperson needs to take charge of the sales process by asking questions. Questions are power. If one is asked a question, first answer it with a question in order to maintain control and only later answer the actual question.

As you can see from the above QBS is a good read or rather a good compilation of material. It borrows from Consultative Selling, SPIN and Winning Inc. liberally however. Reading those or about those methodologies are good prerequisites or companions to QBS.

Of course, and it goes without selling, the author closes the book with the standard attempt at launching a training/guru/institute career. The saving grace is that unlike so many others he actually has a few things to offer.

SCIENCE VERSUS BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT

In Drive Daniel H Pink, a former political aide-turned author and lecturer, overturns the conventional notions that operate modern companies’ dealings with its people and debunks what we think are true regarding motivation and people management.

Much like a Malcolm Gladwell, who translates academia and science into layman’s terms for wider dissemination, Pink digests behavioural and management science from the last 50 years into a surprisingly effective essay regarding how to motivate human beings, which conventional and accepted ideas are gibberish and which actions are counter-effective. The book is interesting in its audacity and perhaps startling in both its conclusions and how so much that is so tested and known in some circles has not seeped into mainstream business. I say ‘perhaps’ because much of the contents is actually coherent and often what many of us have experienced and subconsciously identified, but never put quite found in one tome and in this way. Many managers, business owners or human resource professionals should prepare for a jolt judging by how seldom these ideas are practiced and, indeed, how often they are resisted. Apparently, much of the business world is still in the Dark Ages.

Speaking of which, Pink begins with definitions of Motivation 1.0 (early/basic man who seeks survival), moves to Motivation 2.0 (the carrot and stick model for reward and punishment) and his central theme of Motivation 3.0, which address intrinsic motivators for creative and non-routine work. Imagine how a reward could be a negative. Pink does! And when one thinks about the impossibility of that notion Pink pulls the example of volunteer-run success of Wikipedia versus the paid staffers of the deceased Encarta, which was previously a product of Microsoft. Perhaps Motivation 2.0 is increasingly irrelevant in the Western world. While routine and programmatic work can be outsourced, heuristic and non-routine work generally cannot. Since job growth in our circles is mostly from the latter carrots and sticks are a dangerously anachronistic paradigm that need to be severely reconsidered. As well as Pink explains the concept well; imagine the ways we have to go when imagining telling a sales manager to forego assigning a bonus/commission-based model to his or her salespeople. Unlikely, right? Pink seriously challenges that type of thinking. Adding rewards to pleasurable non-programmatic work has the opposite effect and indeed make the job unpleasant. Taking the extrinsic reward away renders the job pleasant in itself and gives it a sense of purpose and achievement. Pink will explain that financial incentives will make performance worse. Rewards, science shows, narrow the focus when the work calls for thinking and creativity and excitement. To be clear, he hesitates to render the same judgement for algorithmic work.
Having said that, Pink clearly elaborates and explains that ‘baseline rewards’ need to be sufficient for this model to work.

In the second part of Drive, Pink explains the three elements of true motivation. These are Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose. He then offers examples, actual case studies and techniques for unleashing these elements. Most managers and leaders prefer and seek Intrinsically motivated people (he calls them Type I) to Extrinsically motivated (type X) individuals. What if there was a template for unleashing the latter and harnessing the ensuing talent and energy? To be clear, Pink insists on fairness and equity being a prerequisite, but not as a form of carrots and stick rule. Going back to the three elements, Drive addresses the dominance of purpose over profit, specific goals over constant reward systems and giving people control over their work environments (including team-mates, work hours and tasks) as essential to motivation and success. Imagine it. Pink and many businesses did and the case studies are enlightening. The examples are there, but whether, as the book jacket proclaims Drive is “paradigm-shattering” depends on the dissemination and acceptance of the idea at the top echelon of the business and workforce entities. After all, Daniel Pink is telling sales managers, just to cite one example, to stop the commission-based system and to instead discover that the new hires have longer-term visions of their work. The news is that the message is hard to dismiss.

The book is padded with chapter summaries, conversation starters, an index and even a helpful glossary. This makes it a useful handbook on top of its exciting content. Having read it three times over the last several months, useful and exciting are certainly appropriate words here.

Challenging conventional wisdom could be termed Drive’s first and last word were it not for its drawing from actual academic studies and learnings.

A SIX SIGMA PRIMER

Coincidentally, only after picking What Is Six Sigma did it occur to me that the book is related to another one I recently put down. In fact, What Is Six Sigma was mentioned and cited in What Is Six Sigma Process Management? By Rowland Hayler and Michael Nichols, which I put down in December. The fact that the books have the same publisher and similar cover designs should have given it away, but either the clues did not register or the power of subconscious is greater than believed!

The book at hand is really for all levels, which appeals to the beginner in me. The material spans from introductory and nuts and bolts to advanced. Most readers would be able to benefit from the contents if not utilize it as a starting point. At less than one-hundred pages, the book is short and does not contain a glossary or index.

“Six Sigma puts the customer first and uses facts and data to drive better solutions,” states page two, while beginning page fourteen the authors – whose credential are both academically and in practice impressive – assert the six themes of Six Sigma to include 1- a genuine focus on the customer, 2- data and fact-driven management, 3- processes are where the action is, 4- proactive management, 5- boundaryless collaboration and 6-drive for perfection; tolerate failure. This last theme insists that companies need to be ready to handle problems and willing to take risks. Theme number five is often promoted outside Six Sigma circles, but rarely given air. Perhaps this formal process could be its saviour? This chapter also insists that while some of the aforelisted might already be on your company’s agenda, this system brings them all together.

From there, the book gets considerably more technical in its mid-section delving into processes, techniques, statistics and analysis. These tools, skills and processes aim to deliver 99.99966% accuracy into the company’s near future. As the book admits, Six Sigma isn’t about incrementalism, yet the DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve & Control) cycle is best suited for projects that are “meaningful and manageable” the authors counsel.

The end chapters have advice for members of the Six Sigma working groups, non-members, senior executives (champions and sponsors) and provide the reader with a somewhat limited and cursory set of real-life examples. At one point, the authors get into advocating for Six Sigma beyond describing and defining the system. The promotion takes the form of unconcealed advertising. Given that – that is if the authors choose to go into this space – a more balanced take would have been beneficial. Insisting that anyone disagreeing with Six Sigma is an obstructionist or defensive or that folks involved with Six Sigma are holding a ticket to promotion, while others might be making a career-limiting move (p.75: “Doing so is potentially risky to your long-term employment…”) is dubious and unhelpful at best. These pages take earlier assertions (p.22: “Black Belt-hood as a springboard to … promotions and bonuses.”) to a new level. If the authors have chosen to wade beyond description and definition of the process and into advocacy then a balanced approach is called for. After all, many companies and individuals never get involved in Six Sigma and have turned out well. Nevertheless, What Is Six Sigma is both interesting and beneficial and a good, quick and concise read for those interested in the topic.

A Classic And Simple Management Tale

It is likely reasonable to deem The One Minute Manager as a classic among management books. The obvious theme is managing people and employees, but the cover promises ways to simplify one’s life, get more done and be less stressed. Along these lines, the authors have penned several other tomes including The One Minute Father/Mother, The One Minute Sales Person and others.

The One Minute Manager emphasizes human dynamics and managing people as a means of achieving results. It might seem foreign or simplistic to some who espouse technology over people, blame employees first due to a preference for a top-down culture, care more for corporations than people, and ironically end up serving neither or those whose books and programs are not served by conceding to the fundamentals, but that highlights the need for the book even more.

At first, the notion might seem absurd or a stretch, but the book is not a gimmick. The authors are a Ph.D. holder and M.D. respectively and have based the short and straightforward book on research into human behaviour and stimuli. This was my second time reading The One Minute Manager (The ‘One-Minute’ Manager?) and it felt as interesting as the first time, which was back in 1996. After all these years, the advice of Kenneth Blanchard and Spencer Johnson rings true as does the endorsement of C-level persons from firms like Chevron and Jack In The Box.

Perhaps like the reader, the book’s narrator is a somewhat incredulous and curious person who is justly sceptical about the concept. He meets a man who is a ‘One Minute Manager’ and has three tips. While these might sound simple and obvious the detail and methodology is the key. Using a story format, the book hones in on the three basic components of human management each of which should take approximately a minute to accomplish following the initial discussions and training that come with being a new employee or the initiation of a new project.

1- One Minute Goal Setting. The technique insists on writing one’s actionable goals down in a concise format of one page with no more than 250 words. That leads to knowing how to constantly measure performance, reviewing them and agreeing to them with one’s manager.

2- One Minute Praising. This is part of an upfront contract. Praise should follow the commendable action immediately and be specific. Impart sincerity by offering a slight physical touch and encourage more of the same.

3- One Minute Reprimand. This is also part of an upfront understanding. The criticism happens as soon as the manager knows of the mistake and is very specifically about a behaviour and not the person. This is followed by a few seconds of silence and a reversion to the praise of the person overall. Do not dwell on it. Be tough at first in order to make sure the pleasant part comes second.

People Who Feel Good About Themselves Produce Results. The number one motivator for humans is feedback on results.