April 1, 2009

Table of Contents:

Keeping Up: Current Events

Importance of Trust

Trust is essential, according to Ken Blanchard, author of the New York times bestseller, The One  Minute Manager:  "The key to building trust in both good and bad times is to realize that none of us is as smart as all of us. Companies that embrace trust seem to have two characteristics in common: they have a higher purpose than simply making money and they democratize the decision-making process by soliciting input and sharing the decision making with as many people as possible."

iPod Enabled Shoes

Nike is offering a gadget that you put on your shoe to hook you into your iPod and the internet and a network of runners.  This innovation has already hit 40 million miles run so far.  What’s coolest is that the system connects runners so they communicate and get together to organize races.

Starbucks Uses Technology to Increase Sales

Starbucks' new business strategy is powered by technology.  The company is using business intelligence and analytics as a key driver in corporate decision making.  The shareholders are also adding board members who can span the worlds of business and technology. 

Decisions, Decisions: How to Take the Leap

Decision making should be second nature by now, right?  You’ve had years of practice, and yet, there are some ‘Yield’ signs that we all miss sometimes along the way.  Here are a couple of the glaring decision crossroads to look out for.

Selling to Business Customers in a Downturn

So here we are in a continuing economic slump. The good news is that companies (probably including yours) have made it through slumps before, and are learning new ways to cope every day.

The not so good news is that your organization probably needs to re-assess its sales tactics and focus on spreading new tactics throughout the sales system.

Editor's Note

Right up there with employee engagement as a workplace issue is professionalism. Many individuals entering the workforce do not have an understanding of what constitutes professional behavior. Our course, Professional Presence in a Casual World, has been in heavy demand in this economic downturn as companies prepare their competitive advantage (their people) for the recovery.

Book Report

CATS - The Nine Lives of Innovation
Stephen C. Lundin, Ph. D.

Most management or human resource professionals are familiar with Stephen Lundin through his previous title, Fish! 

In this new and upbeat take on the importance of innovation, Dr. Lundin takes the reader on a stroll through practical and lighthearted explanations and "lives" of innovation.  

Read more...

Situation Room
When the Top Performer is an HR Problem

You are the sales director in a fast-paced environment, where sales results are closely monitored and rewarded. Until recently the sales force has been organized into teams that compete against each other for top sales receipts.  In the increasingly competitive market of the last 18 months, the company has changed to an "interdependent" model; in order for the organization to do well, all sales teams must work together.

Each team has one sales manager and six sales representatives. One team in particular, the Western Region, is having trouble.  The salespeople have been complaining about their manager being a "bully".  You have known about this manager’s abrasive style since she joined the company almost 10 years ago, but even though she has a harsh manner, her sales numbers have always been in the top 15% of the organization. 

In the competitive economy, the coarse and rude aspects of her personality seem to be magnified---so much that you have seen an administrative staff member crying at her desk after a meeting with this manager and her top sales person has threatened legal action if he continues to be treated poorly by her. 

What do you do?

Send in your solutions!

Author Q & A

Leo Babauta

For this issue of The Performance Report, we were lucky enough to meet up with Leo Babauta, author of The Power of Less and the creator and blogger at www.zenhabits.net, a Top 100 blog with 80,000 subscribers — one of the top productivity and simplicity blogs on the Internet.  I feel even more fortunate to bring the interview to you, since Babauta is considered by many to be one of the leading experts on productivity and simplicity, and has also written the top-selling productivity e-book in history: Zen To Done: The Ultimate Simple Productivity System. It has sold thousands of copies and has reached tens of thousands of readers.

Read more...