Rip van Winkle was a legendary American character, who 'fell asleep in the woods one day/spent 20 years of his life that way'.

Well, if Rip was actually a sales representative back in 1987 and awoke from his slumber this year, what would he find? A changed organisation except, probably, the sales department. OK, Rip is now a salesperson rather than a salesman and is given a laptop (which serves a purely decorative purpose).

Rip is coached by his manager (who is so pushed for time that she can only spend a couple of hours every 2-3 months with Rip) in features and benefits, closed and open questions, objection handling and 365 different closing techniques.

Hopefully one day Rip will find one that actually works and can dispense with the other 364. Still Rip is lapping his training and coaching up. Armed with all of this information, Rip hits the road and makes his very first call. Too easy.

Except, in this call Rip has to face three decision makers - all with vastly differing needs and expectations. So what does Rip do? Simple, he follows the rote sales presentation formula!

* A ten minute PowerPoint presentation relating to his company (in 47 countries, with 87,422 employees), his product range (458 products with 82 variations, on average, each - that's 37,556 different sizes, shapes, performances).

* He details the support the prospects can expect if they buy Rip's products: 112 people in the call centre, 28 support desk staff, a total e.commerce suite and the prospects will get their own on-line multi-ordering configuration backed by the latest technology. Whew! Hard to get across in 10 minutes

* Then, a major presentation of the specific products the customer stated they were interested in, when they rang the call centre. This presentation is supported by 12 brochures (all in full colour), another PowerPoint presentation which highlights product features and functions - great reinforcement for what is already written in those 12 brochures! Rip also has some samples which he gives to each of the three decision makers.

I could go on ... and on. In the last 20 years, selling has not changed sufficiently to meet the needs of customers. Unless today's sales executive is adding value and bringing innovation to, and gaining RESULTS for, their customers what do you need a sales team for? Hire a bunch of telephone 'vendors' who can sit at a console and process orders. Save a pile of money!

Most decision makers, no matter how long you/your people have been dealing with them, are thinking:

* What's in it for me? My Company?

* What will I gain from doing business with you?

* Will I save (money/time) by doing business with you?

* What risks am I taking?

* Will your solutions meet my needs? Solve my problems?

Here are nine key points, designed to bring 'Rip van Winkles' in your sales team right up-to-date!

1. Understand and work within the Customer's Buying Processes, NOT your selling processes. It does not mean that you don't utilise sales skills; it means that you understand that customers buy for THEIR reasons and not the salesperson's.

Until salespeople understand this concept, they will remain as vendors in the eyes of the customer.

2. Break the Customer's Buying Process into:

* Personal values and beliefs

* Business values and principles.

For instance, the higher you progress up the organisation, decision makers are looking at ways to increase profits and gain market share - clear business values.

A number of people in line management rely more on personal relationships with the salesperson or on pleasing their manager by avoiding risk.

Let me give you an example:

I met with the CEO of a major organisation, publicly listed, who had utilised my services in the past. His administration manager was also present.

As we agreed a training, coaching and skills development strategy for his managers, sales and service teams - the admin manager inquired how much my fee would be. I gave some line ball figures and he said, 'Isn't that going to be rather expensive?' Before I could respond, the CEO said, 'I don't give a _ _ _ _ what he costs, he gets results!'

We completed our planning session quickly after that!

3. What is the one key buying motivation that dominates all others? Find it and you will get the sale. In my sales training programs, I work on six key motivations - called 'hot buttons'. You find these by asking questions. Simple!

4. Make an offer that matches product solutions and benefits to Needs/Hot Buttons. What? 'All my people do that', I hear you say. NO THEY DON'T - only about 10-15% of the top-echelon achievers do!

5. Ensure your people's presentation and demonstration skills are of the highest calibre. They should build decision makers confidence in them and ensure VALUE outweighs price in the decision maker's mind.

6. Building relationships also means significantly reducing competitive relationships. Your people's character, professionalism, value they offer and skills must be honed to outperform and outsell your competitors.

7. Your people should be adept at gaining long term commitment, not just at closing. Ensure they can do both.

8. Develop an account penetration plan - with your current customer; gain their recommendation to other decision makers within the organisation. Introduce new products and services on a planned basis.

9. Deal with objections and concerns professionally. Objections often arise because your people have commenced a closing process too early, haven't determined needs or the decision maker simply doesn't trust them. Seek WIN/WIN outcomes.

As a manager you have a juggling act to perform, one which balances different points of view, and often requires considerable diplomacy.

Classically these are the viewpoints of:

• Yourself

• The organisation

• Your department (or division, section)

• Your people

• External contacts (e.g. customers or suppliers)

Sometimes (regularly?) conflicts arise: something is right for the department and the people, but not for either the organisation or you. On occasions you will find yourself disagreeing with a company policy but having to support it even though you know that your people see it as wrong and personally inconvenient.

How you handle this balancing act is important, and it may be necessary to explain the reasons behind your actions. It is an area for some consistency.

You need to keep certain factors in mind when balancing the interests of different parties:

First and foremost your responsibility is to the organisation and to achieving the targets set for you

You can only do this with the support of your people, so in the long-term you must carry them with you (some disagreement may be seen as inevitable)

You have a responsibility upwards and downwards within the organisation (perhaps one answer is to support a policy, insisting that your people comply, while communicating upwards in an attempt to have it changed if it can be bettered)

You must never be seen as selfish, simply acting to make your own lot better (this will, rightly, always be resented)

You must sometimes be seen to fight your corner on behalf of your section and its people (this will be appreciated, more so if what you take issue with is a nonsense and, especially, if you win!)

Continually Seek To Demonstrate Your Skills At Balancing Different Interests:

As well as making clear your position in respect of the organisation and the other players you need to consider – and make clear – the relationship between you and your own staff. You must always be fair (but rarely democratic). People must see the realities involved. They must understand that there is a balance and that you cannot always be automatically on their side, right or wrong.

Finally - Make It Clear That You:

• See your success as tied in with and, indeed, dependent on them.

• See your role as essentially supportive (in all sorts of ways: guidance, counselling, development and motivation)

• Believe that by working together you can all succeed – not just by everyone doing their share of the work but by everyone contributing creatively (ideas may come from anywhere)

Pareto Analysis is a very simple technique that helps you to choose the most effective changes to make.

It uses the Pareto principle - the idea that by doing 20% of work you can generate 80% of the advantage of doing the entire job*. Pareto analysis is a formal technique for finding the changes that will give the biggest benefits. It is useful where many possible courses of action are competing for your attention.

How to use the tool:

To start using the tool, write out a list of the changes you could make. If you have a long list, group it into related changes.

Then score the items or groups. The scoring method you use depends on the sort of problem you are trying to solve. For example, if you are trying to improve profitability, you would score options on the basis of the profit each group might generate. If you are trying to improve customer satisfaction, you might score on the basis of the number of complaints eliminated by each change.

The first change to tackle is the one that has the highest score. This one will give you the biggest benefit if you solve it.

The options with the lowest scores will probably not even be worth bothering with - solving these problems may cost you more than the solutions are worth.

Example:

A manager has taken over a failing service center. He commissions research to find out why customers think that service is poor.

He gets the following comments back from the customers:

• Phones are only answered after many rings.

• Staff seem distracted and under pressure.

• Engineers do not appear to be well organised. They need second visits to bring extra parts. This means that customers have to take another day off work to be there a second time.

• They do not know what time they will arrive. This means that customers may have to be in all day for an engineer to visit.

• Staff members do not always seem to know what they are doing. Sometimes when staff members arrive, the customer finds that the problem could have been solved over the phone.

The manager groups these problems together. He then scores each group by the number of complaints, and orders the list:

• Lack of staff training: 6: 51 complaints

• Too few staff: 4: 21 complaints

• Poor organization and preparation: 2 complaints

By doing the Pareto analysis above, the manager can better see that the vast majority of problems (69%) can be solved by improving staff skills.

Once this is done, it may be worth looking at increasing the number of staff members.

Alternatively, as staff members become more able to solve problems over the phone, maybe the need for new staff members may decline.

It looks as if comments on poor organisation and preparation may be rare, and could be caused by problems beyond the manager's control.

By carrying out a Pareto Analysis, the manager is able to focus on training as an issue, rather than spreading effort over training, taking on new staff members, and possibly installing a new computer system.

Key Points:

Pareto Analysis is a simple technique that helps you to identify the most important problem to solve.

To use it:

• List the problems you face, or the options you have available

• Group options where they are facets of the same larger problem

• Apply an appropriate score to each group

• Work on the group with the highest score

Pareto analysis not only shows you the most important problem to solve, it also gives you a score showing how severe the problem is.

*This is only one application of this important 80/20 principle. It shows the lack of symmetry that almost always appears between work put in and results achieved. This can be seen in area after area of competitive activity. The figures 80 and 20 are illustrative - for example, 13% of work could generate 92% of returns. Vilfredo Pareto was an Italian economist who noted that approximately 80% of wealth was owned by only 20% of the population. This was true in almost all the societies he studied.

As part of my marketing campaign, I decided to call on the chiropractor located next to the post office.

Purposely, I hadn’t phoned in advance.

On that particular day I was literally knocking on doors.

What the chiropractor didn’t know was that I had sold him some training cassettes over a dozen years ago, by phone. But now, my idea was to test his openness to becoming one of my new coaching clients.

As I entered his dimly lit office, he greeted me. Instantly, I felt a sense of emptiness, partly conveyed by missing receptionists, assistants, and above all, clients.

“Hello, Dr. Frisbee,” I said brightly. “I’d like to get one of your business cards and then set an appointment with you to see how we might establish a consulting relationship.”

“Okay,” he replied in a subdued, but not disinterested tone.

And with that, I decided NOT to pitch him on the spot, which would have been my preference had I not sensed such a vacuum in his quarters.

In fact, I never pitched him. His name went to the bottom of my prospecting list because I felt his career wasn’t soaring. It was going the other way.

This perception turned out to be correct. A few days ago, as I was driving up his street, I noticed some sheets or towels had been hung awkwardly over the broad storefront window with his name still etched on the glass.

He was out of business.

This sounds like a sad story, but it isn’t; not if you’re a marketer or a salesman. In fact, it represents a breakthrough in a retro sense.

By doing your prospecting on foot, or by car, you can gauge what’s really going on in a business. Instead of seeing just another “tombstone” description of your prospect on a computer screen, you can gaze into the parking lot at that distributorship and see that there are some very upscale sports cars parked in the executives’ spaces.

This company is doing fine, its people are prospering.

Likewise, you can see how large the buildings are that your prospects occupy, and above all, you can evaluate the mood of the place by assessing the reception you receive. Obvious employee contentment and broad smiles tell you this is probably not a place that’s headed for imminent disaster.

Of course, you may be hunting for failure, for dourness, especially if you’re seeking new digs for a real estate client and you want to get in on the ground floor with a motivated seller. Then, you might be hunting for a marginal enterprise that’s more than willing to move on, and to move out.

But you get the idea. Prospecting in person, while it may seem inefficient and archaic, is anything but. It can be the most enlightened way of seeing what’s going on in the real world.

The top salesperson at an international shipping company, one of my clients, used to get in his car and follow the competition’s trucks to see where they were making pickups. He’d count how many boxes were loaded, and how much time was spent at each dock.

Then, he’d customize a proposal before even contacting those prospects, who of course were amazed that he seemed to know so much about them!

Try this, at least every now and then. It will make prospecting a lot more fun, like detective work, and you’ll breathe new life into what can otherwise be a highly impersonal and abstract marketing process.

I believe there is a niche for a a top tele-sales organization that can make these claims to prospective clients:

“We Fill Meeting Rooms With Precisely The Right People.”

“We Set Appointments With Precisely The Right People.”

I could use one right now to get me before people who can green-light on-site training & consulting programs.

Some perspective:

There is a rule of thumb, validated by behavioral research that says if you’re a presenter, a marketer, a persuader, almost without fail the WRONG people will be in your audience.

If you want the Sr. VP of Operations or the COO, you’ll get a telephone sales supervisor or a CSR that has been sent “as a scout,” without authority or much gray matter.

Why? There is selective exposure to information and people notably avoid anything that smacks of what they think they already know or should know. Also, top people closely guard their time.

At a faculty dinner at UCLA Extension, where I’ve been teaching a “Building Your Consulting Business” class since ’99, I asked some cohorts, who also consult, what a qualified appointment with a decision maker would be worth to them.

One said “$100” and the next, a former Xerox executive, shook his head and said: “No, it’s worth at least $500.”

What do YOU think a great appointment is worth?

What would you willingly pay to hook a high-level seminar participant who'd be happy to hear your pitch for upscale products or services?

I believe each outcome is worth a ton, but presently, we're not able to attract effective enough communicators to the tele-selling field in order to produce quality results.

More important, we're trying to use ever cheaper substitutes, working in call centers in India and elsewhere, who are next to useless when it comes to engaging senior executives in what one of my clients termed, "Meaningful Conversations."

Let's turn this around and do what Henry Ford did when he inaugurated the "Five dollar day," which was an unprecedented upgrading of the value of a factory job. By raising the stakes for quality phone folks, we just may be able to entice them to deliver what we need: first class appointments and sales!

“I’ll show him; I won’t call him back!”

“I don’t need his business. There are plenty more where he came from.”

“Maybe he can thin other people’s margins, but not mine!”

“I’m going to quote just one price and he can take it or leave it.”

These are just a few of the lines self-defeating salesmen use to rationalize their often bizarre behavior.

They just can’t seem to get out of their own way when they’re selling.

Instead of making customers feel important, they pull out every stop to come across as superior, citing all of their irrelevant achievements and credentials.

I interviewed a fellow whose resume mentioned prominently that he went to an Ivy League school. When we talked about a sales position he said: “Please don’t tell anyone, because I wouldn’t want it to get back to them that this is what I’m doing now, for a living!”

I think this is a very revealing case study in ambivalence, which is one of the major maladies of the self-defeating salesman. He’s not at all sure selling is what he wants to do for a living.

It could have been his second or fifty-second choice as an occupation, but he fell into doing it and his lifestyle or indebtedness or inertia won’t permit him to make a change.

One of the manifestations of a self-defeating salesman is that he talks too much, rambles, and finally says something offensive that ruins the deal.

Jim was trying to sell a training program to two owners of a home security company. One of them asked, at a crucial stage in the conversation, “What’s the next step?”

Instead of saying, “All I need is your go ahead and we’ll be able to begin next week, okay?” Jim tossed the ball back to the buyers.

“Well, I guess you gentlemen need to decide whether you want to move forward,” he replied, limply.

“Right,” one of them retorted. “We’ll discuss it and get back to you,” which of course was their last intention.

If Jim couldn’t CLOSE them, especially when cued to do so, what was he going to teach their salespeople, whom he sought to train?

Jim knew better, but for some reason, he felt the buyers were toying with him, testing him, and he resented it. So, instead of giving them what they wanted, he shot himself in the foot.

One of my clients, a very successful salesman and entrepreneur, remarked that “Selling is so easy; it’s hard.”

I think he meant it’s hard not to get in your own way, which is exactly what happens all too often to salesmen who don’t straighten out their priorities and stay out of their own way.

Although every organization is different, hiring a sales manager is not as simple as it looks. In fact, the wrong sales manager can quickly damage morale, if not scare away the sales reps and potentially injure the firm.

A common mistake is to promote a high achieving sales rep who wants to move up in management. Unfortunately, a highly successful sales rep may be exactly the wrong candidate for sales management. Often aggressive sales reps are impatient, lack team-player characteristics, and tend to have huge egos; these can be exactly the wrong characteristics for a sales manager.

In my opinion, the following general characteristics or traits are needed for a good sales manager:

1. Teaching skills- This includes the ability and interest to help others learn.

2. Empathy- A good sales manager needs to understand how reps feel and how to react accordingly. Sales teams can be highly emotional and fragile. Insensitive sales managers fail.

3. Ego in check- A strong ego is required, but the needs of the team are greater than the manager’s.

4. Communication skills- This skill is an obvious requirement that includes the ability to lead the sales team and to work with the other departments.

5. Relationship skills- This is the ability to create long term relationships with internal and external customers. Sales managers must be likeable.

6. Analytical skills- The best sales managers must be able to decide the strategic options in complex sales situations. They have to make the tough calls.

7. Wins through the victories of the team- Gets satisfaction by helping sales reps win; this is knocks out a lot of reps who want to be managers.

8. Ability to handle pressure- On a day to day basis, the sales manager is “under the gun” more than any employee in a typical firm.

9. Continuous learner- I find that the best sales managers are always looking for new ways to get things done. They are naturally curious.

10. Sales manager experience- I always favor gray hair when it comes to hiring a sales manager. Conversely, rookies will likely make mistakes and those mistakes could be costly.

Remember to do an extensive background check on external candidates. Look for a history of strong performances with good references. Life is short, so hire winners.

It is common for people to want to be considered indispensable in their jobs. After all, the competition is out there, the younger generation is more numerous and demanding. The challenge is to be constantly building your value to your organization because of personal integrity, humility, and creativity.

Look at the more common picture. Managers who feel they are indispensable often behave in ways that are contrary to their organization’s success. Their goals, decisions, actions, and personality styles seem to communicate that no one can manage the roles and responsibilities of their department better then they can. They feel that without them, their organization or department would fail miserably. This is often the height of an out-of-control ego, arrogance, ignorance, and/or any combination of these factors. It can also be caused by poor self-image or insecurity.

This style of management can often be seen in a “my way or the highway’” corporate culture. The negative impact of a manager with this outlook isn’t a pretty picture. To believe you are indispensable is totally naive. If this “lone giant” attitude is a part of your psyche, I recommend you consider the following:

1.How was your department or organization able to function before you arrived?
2.When you take a week off for vacation, does everything fall apart at the seams?
3.Are you cultivating employees to take on additional roles or responsibilities that are part of your job function?
4.Do you tend to delegate only fluff to your employees?


On the other hand, smart managers and leaders who truly make themselves indispensable will constantly build their value by staying on top of their game and enlarging the vision of their own future. To do this, they will:

1.Offer their employees adequate training.
2.Hire strong candidates so the employee will contribute to the good of the department and company.
3.Delegate tasks or assignments to help the employee grow in skills and responsibilities.

Although you are responsible for your employees’ output, productivity, and results, you are responsible to people and not for them.

The mistake of being responsible for people is like having sympathy for them. You feel that if they fail, you have failed. Sympathy keeps people dependant. Being responsible to people requires empathy: You understand what they are going through, but it is their stuff, not yours. You are there to help them, support them, and give them the tools and training they need to be effective. But if they fail to perform, it is clearly their choice. Now, if you haven’t done your part, then you should feel responsible for them.

How can managers be responsible for their employees rather than to them?

1.Make no excuses for poor employee performance.
2.Apply empathy when employees have personal issues that may get in the way of their

effectiveness.
3.Permit no negative attitudes from top performers.
4.Permit no employees to break the rules that others must follow.
5.Play no favorites with certain likeable employees.


Personal responsibility is an absolute requirement if people are to succeed and contribute their share to the overall success of your department or organization. Tolerating less than the acceptable standards from certain employees, for whatever reason, sends a message to other employees that the rules and expectations vary, depending on who you are, your age, gender, race, experience, personal challenges, tenure, performance, or relationship with the manager.

Everything you do as a manager sends subtle signals to everyone. Be vigilant to ensure that the signals you are sending are uniform and consistent. Sure, there may be situations when exceptions can and should be made, due to personal issues or challenges. Just be careful that these don’t set precedents that you are unwilling to apply organization-wide.

Do you treat all employees the same yet differently?

This topic, at first glance, might seem to contradict the previous one we just discussed. But if you will carefully observe, you will see some very subtle differences.

Every employee has special needs and desires that are uniquely theirs. They have dreams and hopes and the desire to feel valuable. Some may express them openly, while others may keep them hidden in the safety zone of their own minds. Or they may communicate them to their peers rather than to the higher-ups. But each employee is uniquely individual.

Treating employees without regard for these personal needs sends a clear message that they are not special, but just another employee, a cog in the machine. If you want the labor of a person’s heart and not just their hands or mind, it is critical that you treat people with respect. This would seem to be a simple task, but you would be amazed at how frequently managers show disrespect for their employees in subtle as well as blatant ways. For example:

· Disciplining an employee in front of their peers
· Interrupting them while they are sharing an idea or solution to a problem
· Being late for a meeting with an employee
· Not copying them in correspondence or emails that impact their position
· Ignoring their suggestions
· Not listening to them


It is impossible to know every employee’s needs and desires from moment to moment. But you can learn to see every employee as special and unique in their own way. This takes time, willingness, letting go of prejudices and judgments, and learning to see each and every employee as a valuable contributor to the organization’s success, well-being, and future growth – and to invest in them accordingly.

One of the biggest contributors to poor management performance, bad decisions, hiring mistakes, and a whole host of other problems is ego.

Everyone has an ego. It is a natural part of everyone’s psyche and vital for success. The problem occurs when a manager’s ego is given too much control of their behavior, attitudes, and management style.

The ego wants to look good, be right, not make mistakes, not admit failure, manipulate, and control or appear in control at all times. It would be nice if organizations and their strategies, objectives, goals, purpose, mission, and performance were always predictable and operating at peak efficiency and optimum results.

However, in the real world, change is the mantra and norm. Uncertainty prevails. And there are forces at work that would sabotage your ideal world. They include: the government, the weather, unpredictable employees, technology, competitors, customer attitudes and expectations, just to mention a few. If all of these could be harnessed for optimum control, we would never have business failures, lost customers, unhappy and poor-performing employees, disgruntled suppliers, and frustrated accountants.

Ego has cost Corporate America more money than any other single factor. It has resulted in poor decisions, thwarted initiatives, products that have out-lived their life cycle, and acquisitions gone bad. Want more?

· New products that should never have hit the street
· Bad products that were left on the street too long
· Poor hiring decisions
· The decision to terminate a good employee for no other reason than they have an ego, too
· The unwillingness to let go of control of anything
· Keeping decision-making at the top of the corporate ladder
· Unwillingness to delegate difficult or critical tasks
· The desire to look good to the rest of the corporate world, regardless of whether you are making money or not

I believe by now I should have your attention. So why is ego such a big problem in business? After all, Donald Trump has one, and he is successful.

If you were to ask an out-of-control-ego executive or manager if their ego is out of control, guess what you will hear. Believe it or not: No. Why is this? Denial? Arrogance? Insecurity? Or some other psychological or emotional need that has not been or is not being met?

During my career, I have watched clients make acquisitions (against my recommendations) for no other reason than ego. In almost every case, these cost their organization dearly in focus and reputation, not to mention profits. And, ultimately they were shut down or sold off again to some other executive with a big ego, maybe this time to someone who prides him- or herself as a business savior or turn-around master!

Before I lose you, I don’t want you to get the impression that ego is only an issue in the big decisions or choices made at the top. Its impact can be found day-to-day in many of the small and often less significant parts of an enterprise, in the actions and decisions made by mid-level managers and supervisors. I see the results of this every day and everywhere I go in my travels as a speaker and trainer.

As a manager, how do you know if your ego is out of control?

Just pay close attention to a number of critical factors. I guarantee that if you are aware of your circumstances, honest with your self-appraisal, and in touch with reality, it will become crystal clear whether your ego is in control or is running rampant in your organization or department. Some of these factors are:

· consistently poor morale
· constant communication breakdowns
· bad hiring decisions
· consistently poor decisions
· acquisitions or mergers that go sour
· high employee turnover
· consistently poor quality
· outdated policies, products, services, and/or procedures
· loss of market share
· vulnerability to competitors
· poor sales results
· decreasing profits from year to year
· the negative consequences of your decisions

Carefully observe early warning signs for these factors and determine their cause and any relationship between them and your ego, and then respond to them and manage them ego-free and effectively before they become embedded in your corporate culture, employee attitudes, and customer attitudes. You could ask yourself:

1. Can I ever be wrong?
2. Can an employee be smarter than I am?
3. Do I trust my employees?
4. Can I reverse myself after a bad decision or do I die by it?
5. Can I give up control?
6. Do I have pet projects or activities that I can’t let go of?
7. Can I freely give credit where someone else was responsible for the positive outcome?
8. Can I discard old products, services, or ideas that I was responsible for?
9. Can I share the limelight with others?
10. Do I give adequate appreciation and recognition to others?
11. Can I admit failure?
12. Can I admit to not having an answer?
13. Do I procrastinate on simple or important tasks, decisions, or initiatives?


These questions should get you started. Honest answers will help you clearly identify if your ego is a problem in your position.

In his classic book Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap … and Others Don’t, Jim Collins states:

Level 5 leaders channel their ego needs away from themselves and into the larger goal of building a great company. It’s not that Level 5 leaders have no ego or self-interest. Indeed they are incredibly ambitious – but their ambition is first and foremost for their institution and not herself or himself.

If you can rise to the challenge of channeling your ego in this way, be encouraged by the following:

1. Your ego is not part of your DNA or genes. It is man-made and can be un-made or controlled if you choose.
2. It is better to succeed and enjoy your success with a controlled ego than it is to go down in flames with an ego that is out of control.
3. You will never “win them all,” no matter how good you think you are. So get used to losing once in a while, if you aren’t already.
4. Hire a personal coach. What it costs you will be peanuts compared to the time and money you could save your organization. I accept ten new coaching clients every year. If you want to be considered for one of the slots, give me a call.
5. Business is not about winning or looking good, but serving others well.