But I really do believe that everyone is born with a talent to be great at something and the only reason most people don’t realize their full potential is because our education system and the social pressure (from parents and peers) that is wrapped around it has caused us to go down the wrong path for us.  This video is not only amusing in the typical English style, it is very thought provoking.

Ken Robinson on creativity

I’m in good company it seems.  A very similar view is delightfully expressed by Tom Peters in a presentation he gave recently- “Re-imagine! Business Excellence in a Disruptive Age”.  He says “you can’t be remarkable by following someone else’s remarkable.”  What makes firms great is being different in a way that customers value and then being able to capture that value through pricing and process.

Tom’s thoughts on this are worth listening to – click on the link.  Click here to listen to the audio.

After losing $60 billion in the last decade — and billions more recently when a cloud of volcanic ash grounded flights across Europe — airlines are looking to consolidate as a way to return to profitability amid continued struggles with high fuel prices, competition from low-cost carriers, and a limited customer pool that shriveled even more during the recession. But experts are skeptical about the “bigger is better” strategy. Many observers say the carriers have proved downright flighty at following through on making changes that improve operations and put the customer first.

After reading this I couldn’t help thinking, why don’t these guys take a leaf out of Southwest Airlines book.  That company creates a flying experience that consistently WOWs its customers and is very cost efficient to both customer and itself because it implements a sensible operational strategy, employs (and retains) amazingly loyal, engaged and empowered people, and makes air travel for both its customers and its team members a fun experience. It has an excellent on-time departure and arrival record and your bags practically always end up at the same airport that you do – sometimes even before you!

In my opinion consolidation will NOT make the airlines more profitable if past experience is any guide.  It will make air travel more expensive but that does not translate to higher profit. SWA consistently makes a profit because it has a superior business model.  It’s that simple.  What that means is they achieve higher utilization of their assets (they turn their planes and the team members in them) around faster than other airlines, and they have higher occupancy rates so their net margin is higher.  These two things result in significantly higher ROI (asset turn x net margin = ROI).  Simple isn’t it?  This is Business Finance 101!

Oh and one more thing, because they have more loyal customers and therefore higher capacity utilization they are able to articulate the customer value proposition that I have reproduced below.  I HATE HAVING TO PAY MORE FOR MY BAGS THAN I DO FOR MY SEAT (on a recent trip with Jetstar – an Australian airline, my seat cost $129 and my bag cost $300), AND SO DOES EVERYONE ELSE I’VE ASKED. I also hate it when I get severely penalized if I have to change my schedule — at SWA that does not happen.  Traveling with them is a pleasure.

Who we are determines how we see others. This principle says once we get our own act together, we will be able to help others get their acts together. It’s impossible, if I am an unhealthy leader, to have healthy followers. I have to fix myself. We don’t see others as they are; we see others as we are, because each of us has his or her own bent and that colors our view of everything. What is around us doesn’t determine what we see. What is within us does. For example, if I am an untrusting person, how you think I will see you? I will see you as untrustworthy. So anything that is unhealthy about me is going to spill onto you. That is what leaders have to understand. But as a leader, if I can get victory over myself, if I can fix John Maxwell, the odds are high I can help and fix others.

1. Before you attend a networking event find out as much as you can about what the theme of the event is, who is likely to be there, give thought to who you would like to meet and what you would like to discover by attending. Do your research on the people (and their organization) who you expect to be there – when you get to meet them you will seem well-informed an on the ball. What better credential could you have as a representative of a professional service firm in the knowledge industry?
2. Never be late for the event. If necessary get up 30 minutes earlier that day! When you’re early you can scope out the room, learn the names of people, get comfortable with the group and decide where you want to sit and who you want to get to know.
3. Do NOT try to use the occasion to sell anything. Your purpose in being there is to meet people and to establish rapport through learning as much about them and their needs as you can. That means take your business cards by all means but do not take your brochures – if someone wants to learn more about you and your services, set up a later meeting (perhaps over a meal) and talk shop there.
4. Take a small pocket notebook to make a note of things your discover, people you meet, promises you made etc. On this point take note of Stephen Covey’s 5th Habit – seek first to understand before being understood: develop your listening skills rather than your talking skills. You’ll be amazed at how fruitful this turns out to be for developing strong relationships.
5. Never sit next to one of your associates. The purpose of attending the event is to meet people, why on earth would you want to sit next to someone you already know?
6. Dress appropriately for the event. What is appropriate should have been determined as part of your discovery process that I discussed in point 1 above. Need I add, comb your hair, brush your teeth, polish your shoes, change your shirt if necessary – sorry, am I sounding like your mother?
7. Follow up the people you met who you would like to form a relationship with.

Looking at them my best guess is that they’d be in their 50’s.  Interestingly, I shared a chair lift with a gentleman a couple of weeks ago and we got to chat about things as you do on a chair lift and he told me he skied most days unless the mountain was closed.  He mentioned in passing that it’s what kept him alive — he said he was 84 and didn’t start skiing until he was 62!  So much for being “too old!”

This reminds me of the question: “when’s the best time to plant a tree?” Answer: “40 years ago.”  Second best time – “NOW!”

Dalton Sherman

The teachers, the students and their parents understandably thought it was a great idea. By the end of the year the students had achieved from 20 to 30 percent better than the other students in the entire San Francisco Bay area!  Everyone was delighted.  However, the Principal called in the teachers and said: “I have a confession to make. You did not have ninety of the most intellectually prominent students.  They were run-of-the-mill students. We took ninety students at random from the system and gave them to you.”

The teachers concluded that their exceptional teaching skill was therefore responsible for the students’ outstanding progress until the Principal said “I have another confession.  You’re not the brightest of the teachers. Your names were drawn out of a hat.”

The researcher concluded that the reason both the students and their teachers performed at an exceptional level is the attitude they each embraced.  They had an attitude of positive expectation and confidence in each other.  They performed well because they believed they could!

I wonder how much of our own under-performance can be attributed to our failure to believe in ourselves and our colleagues.  Henry Ford’s statement: “If you believe you can or you believe you can’t you’re probably right” has become cliche but I think it’s a natural law.  I’d be interested in what you think.

Having said that, how long should you give yourself to master any skill.  Practice, it is said, makes perfect and yet so often I hear people say “I can’t do this or that” and then give up after one or two attempts.   In my view and certainly in my experience, there are very few worthwhile things in life that are easily accomplished and those that are probably don’t deserve to be listed amongst your achievements.  Not only are challenging goals hard, they also typically cost more and take a lot longer than you expect. But what remains are two words: worthwhile goals.

What makes goals worthwhile is the fact that they are hard but that’s what brings out the best in you and from a business perspective this is also what gives you a competitive advantage.  Most people are happy to plod along living from day-to-day, achieving little but just surviving.  The amazing thing about the pursuit of challenging goals is what you learn from the failure you experience along the way.  If you’re not failing your goal is not challenging enough and the payoff will reflect that.  If you are failing you’ll be learning and getting closer to a higher level of understanding and competence.  Failure is simply a question of attitude; to some people it is seen as a negative outcome to others it is part of their progress towards the desired outcome.  Benjamin Franklin said “I didn’t fail the test I just found 100 ways to do it wrong.”

So, if you want to “learn to walk” at anything in life or in business all you really need to do is practice and never give up. Simple isn’t it?  Just one more thing no matter how hard something might seem to be, someone has probably been there before you and you can learn from their experience.  Don’t re-invent wheels just emulate the behavior of people who have achieved what you seek and take it to another level.

Professional services can’t be seen, smelt, felt, touched or tasted so for the most part people who need them will not be aware of that need.  To address this you need to alert your clients to the benefits that your solutions will provide.  We’ll call this marketing.  But marketing is not selling.  Selling is the flip side of marketing and is the process of helping people move from a mental position of understanding their need to a mental state of wanting your solution.

This brings me to three points.  First, your impact as a professional is directly related to the value you bring to the table for the people you are privileged to serve. Second, no matter how talented you are, your impact will be directly influenced by your ability to sell. Finally, you ability to sell, as with any learned ability, will be directly influenced by your willingness to practice to develop your skill.  Here’s my question, how often do you practice for or even prepare for a sales meeting?

Consider this. I read a story recently about Tony Gwynn, a US major-league baseballer who played for the San Diego Padres from 1982 to 2001. He was inducted into the Hall of Famer in 2007 as one of the best hitters in the game with a career batting average of .338.  He was the National League Batting Champion on 8 occasions in his 19 year career.  I take it you understand that he was pretty good!

The key to his success I’m told, is not just his natural talent but also his ability to focus.  Despite his unquestionable skill he would read Ted William’s book The Science of Hitting several times each season.  He watched hours of video of his own game and others.  He’d take the videos with him on the road to study and when he wasn’t swinging his bat in practice, watching videos, or reading about hitting he was talking to his team mates about it and how he could improve. This is precisely the same behavior that Tiger Woods exhibits with his golf.  He practices all the time and if he has a bad round he goes straight to the practice tee and hits hundreds of balls.

Now you may not aspire to the lofty heights achieved by Gwynn and Woods but I think there’s something to learn from them.  You get better at anything when you practice.  Practice may not make perfect but if you aim for perfect and fall short, you’ll still end up with excellent.

Your formal education gave you the basic knowledge you needed to enter the profession. That education together with the continuing formal education you receive as part of your CPE/CPD compliance keeps you technically up to speed and gives you your income.  However, this is never enough to make you a master.  That comes for you own personal development – from reading, watching video programs, attending sales training courses and most importantly from practicing. When you combine your talent with your sales skill you will have a dramatic impact on the people you come in contact with.  Here are two books you could start with.  Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People and Og Mandino’s The Greatest Salesman in the World. In addition to reading these books take a look at our own sales resources on the website.

Your sales productivity (and your income and professional enjoyment) will explode when you do the following things: (1) be deeply prepared – this will show your prospect that you care, (2) have a clear and definite picture in your mind of what you want and expect the outcome of the sales presentation to be, (3) rehearse every presentation in your mind and with colleagues, (4) develop your listening skills rather than your talking skills, (5) be “interested” rather than “interesting” so that you are able to identify your prospect’s real needs and remember the saying: people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care and finally (6) ask for the engagement with the use of a statements such as “so <name> having seen what this means for you, when would you like to get started?”

Oh, and one more incredibly important thing, don’t forget to go through your Mutual Commitment Statement as an integral part of the sales process.  This requires practice and when you get it down pat, your financial future will be assured as will that of your clients.