Siri is the voice assistant introduced with the iPhone 4S designed to make the user’s life easier. Through natural commands spoken into the phone, Siri jumps to provide assistance or information as required by the request. Siri isn’t able to do everything, nor to understand some requests, but the technology is imnpressive in how often it works as intended. I find myself using Siri more and more the longer I use the iPhone 4S, and have run across some useful things.

Reminders.
Siri works with the reminders in iOS5 to make sure you don’t forget to do something. These are the first thing that most iPhone 4S owners get familiar with, and the longer I use Siri the more use I get out of reminders. I use it all the time for simple things.

My wife asks me to repair an item before our guests arrive and I tell Siri to “remind me to repair the dishwasher in an hour”. Today I told Siri to “remind me to water the plants” She did, and the plants are grateful.

I am getting good at not just using Siri for timed actions like those above, but for lots of other functions. I often tell Siri to “remind me to note something I need to remember” for anything I would normally jot down on a post-it note. This is so easy to do I never forget simple things like this, now that I have a personal assistant.

Requests for Information.
Like most folks I have become dependent on web searches to get information I need. Siri has assumed a big role in my quest for information, both simple searches I used to manually type into Google and others that are less structured.

Sunday I wondered what Roger Federer’s schedule looked like for the rest of the year so I had said “Siri, show me Roger Federer’s schedule”. Siri delivered a Google serp that took me right to the schedule I needed. Lucky guess? Perhaps… Convenient? Hell yea!

These are very simple examples, but I am gradually coming to depend on Siri to get me more specific information through Apple’s integration with other services. Preceding a request with “wikipedia” instead of Siri tells Siri I want her to use that service to look for the information I am requesting. You can also preface a question with Bing or Yahoo, if you want those services to be used. Now, not a ingle day passes without at least 5 queries or Siri.

Sending text messages.
In the beginning I would tell Siri to “Send a text to person’s name” along with the line of text I wanted to send. As I used Siri, I realized she could learn how those who I text frequently are related to me. Now I simply tell Siri to “Text my wife I will be running late” and after once telling Siri which contact is my wife, Siri takes care of the rest. I’ve done the same thing with my assistant and a few of my best friends. Since getting the iPhone 4S I find I send more sms thn ever before often, due to how easy it is with Siri.

I also use Siri’s ability to send text messages to tweet occasionally. I set up Twitter to allow tweeting via SMS, and trained Siri what number that was. Now I tell Siri to “Send a text to Twitter” followed by a short tweet. Nice and simple and totally hands-free. You can also configure Google+ and Facebook to allow you to post updates using this method.

Making phone calls.
I use Siri more and more to initiate phone calls, especially in the car. It is so easy to tell Siri to “call my wife at home” and have the call initiated with no further action required from me.

The same method is good for getting contact information I need. Asking Siri “what is The address for Client X?” is a lot easier than manually finding it in the Address Book. I can even ask Siri what so-and-so’s birthday is and get the date. I’d be great if more apps like SalesForce.com were to support Siri, then such address queries would be much easier. Alas, SalesForce.com are not known for reacting quickly to such requests

Setting alarms.
I now use Siri to set alarms. This is as simple as “Wake me tomorrow at 5:30″ or “set an alarm for 6:30″. That gets the nagging iPhone alarm set to disturb me appropriately.

Scheduling.
Siri is especially good at scheduling meetings and events. “Meet with Peter today at 14:00 gets the appropriate event in my schedule. I really like the ability to ask Siri “What does my schedule look like on Friday?” and having it shown. This is where the natural language of Siri really shines.

Siri is far from perfect, but as I use it more and more I am getting better at figuring out what type of natural language commands work best. I can state confidently that I am using the iPhone 4S and Siri more than I have used any other smartphone, because I am finding more things Siri can do for me all the time. It’s also a lot of fun!

Business executives and sales managers frequently complain about the classic 80/20 performance of their sales teams, where approximately 80 percent of sales are produced by approximately 20 percent of salespeople. Of course, the ratio is not always 80/20. Sometimes it is 75/25, 70/30, 60/40, or even 90/10. However, the situation the ratio describes is always the same: the vast majority of salespeople produce a fraction of what top performers on the very same sales teams produce.
What are the reasons behind these performance disparities? What is it about top sales performers that enables them to achieve superior results? Can anyone achieve top performance in sales?

Certainly there are some sales skills that anyone can learn. For example, it’s easy to teach how to ask reflective questions.

Reflective questions begin with who, what, when, where, why and how. If you ask reflective questions instead of questions that can be answered with yes or no, prospects usually share more information with you. This increases your chances of uncovering “pain points” that can eventually lead to sales.

“Pain-point” is widely used business jargon, and a word that many investors like to use. They may ask you “so what is the pain-point you are trying to solve with this idea?” If you can identify a pain-point which many people (globally even) can relate to, but no-one has resolved previously, you are probably on to something big. So, in other words, you can find opportunities in the market by solving, what a sizable group of people would describe as a “pain”. For example, since the battery in your laptop dies fast and people tend to find this a “pain”, many companies are currently working on alternative ways to charge PCs and keep batteries running longer. These companies are effectively trying to resolve a well-known pain-point.

You can learn how to ask reflective questions by participating in a simple role play. In this role play, you’ll play the salesperson and I’ll play the prospect. Every time you ask me a yes or no question, I’ll answer “no.” Getting stonewalled with a bunch of “no” answers will break you of the yes/no questioning habit pretty quickly!

Other sales skills are tougher to learn. A good example is teaching salespeople how to ask questions and follow the thread; in the answers. To explain this concept, let’s use another role play. In this role play you’ll ask me reflective questions. I’ll respond with answers that contain some “pain points”. If you recognize the pain points and drill down into them deeply enough (by asking additional questions), you’ll eventually be able to “sell” me.

Do you know what my experience has been with this role play? Some salespeople learn how to “follow the thread” easily. Others struggle, but they eventually learn how to do it. However, some just never get it, no matter how hard they try!

Why can some people learn this critical skill, but others can’t?

I struggled with this question for 14 years. I used to believe that anyone could succeed at anything if they wanted it badly enough and were willing to work hard enough. However, my experience with the “follow the thread” role play made me start to question that belief. As I continued reading and researching over the years, I eventually uncovered two pieces of information that really opened my eyes.

KEY DISCOVERY #1

In their book, “Now, Discover Your Strengths”, Marcus Buckingham and Donald Clifton report that great managers and average managers have different expectations for their employees. According to Buckingham and Clifton, average managers assume that “each person can learn to be competent in almost anything”, while great managers assume that “each person&’s talents are enduring and unique”.

Most sales books and training programs seem to take the average manager point of view. In other words, they seem to assume that anyone can learn how to sell. Their unspoken promise is that all you have to do is invest enough time, effort and money to learn the skills they teach. If you put in the time and effort, you will learn the skills and eventually succeed in sales.

Unfortunately, there are countless examples of sales books and training courses not producing the desired improvement in sales performance. Think about some salespeople you know personally. How many of them are struggling to make their quotas? Why are they struggling?

Is it the state of the economy? (If other salespeople are making their numbers, blaming the economy won’t earn them much sympathy.)
Is it because they don’t work hard enough?
Is it because they don’t have enough product knowledge?
Do they need to work harder on their selling skills?
Do they need more coaching from their manager?
What if the “great manager” point of view is correct? What if everyone cannot become proficient in sales? What if success in sales requires a unique set of talents?

KEY DISCOVERY #2
Herb Greenberg, Harold Weinstein and Patrick Sweeney report this very conclusion in their book, “How to Hire and Develop Your Next Top Performer”. After correlating hundreds of thousands of assessments that were performed over several decades with actual sales performance measurements, they reached these startling conclusions:

55% of the people earning their living in sales should be doing something else.
Another 20% to 25% have what it takes to sell, but they should be selling something else

Wow! Those are some sobering statistics! They indicate that more than half of all salespeople are never going to make it in sales. Another quarter have some chance of accomplishing sales success, but only if they find the right job selling the right kind of product or service.

How can you identify whether salespeople have the talents required to succeed in your company’s sales positions?

One reason why companies suffer from 80/20 performance is because their processes for hiring, training and managing salespeople rely almost entirely upon subjective information. After all, what are resumes? They are an individual’s subjective portrayal of their capabilities and experiences. What occurs during an interview? Interviewees attempt to package their responses to questions in a manner that will make the best impression. Meanwhile, interviewers are forming personal opinions about candidates’ qualifications for the position.

I’m not suggesting that subjective information is useless. Subjective information is a valid and valuable component of any “people decision”. However, if decisions based solely upon subjective information produce an undesirable result 80 percent of the time, doesn’t it make sense to consider making a change?

One way to introduce objective information into sales hiring and coaching processes is through use of specialized sales assessment tests. I’m not referring to personality or behavioral tests like Myers-Briggs or DISC. Those types of tools are useful for learning how to communicate more effectively with someone, and may provide some insights into an individual’s motivations. However, they are not effective for predicting whether or not someone will succeed in sales.

The specialized sales assessment tests that I’m referring to identify how quickly an individual learns and how good they are at “reasoning”.

Reasoning – especially verbal reasoning – is a critical component of the talent for asking questions and “following the thread” in the answers. Plus, the most useful sales assessment tests identify an individual’s strength or weakness in a variety of other important sales-related attributes. These include the following:

Sales Drive: Does the individual enjoy presenting, persuading, negotiating, and motivating others? How much do they enjoy these activities?
Emotional Toughness: How rapidly does the individual rebound from rejection? Do they learn from their experiences and move on quickly? Or, do they suffer a sustained reduction in productivity?
Reasoning Ability: Does the individual ask good questions? Can they dissect answers and pick out the pieces that will help advance the conversation toward a desired end result?
Service Drive: How friendly and agreeable is the individual? How interested are they in building relationships and helping others?
Assertiveness: How self-assured is the individual? How effective are they at convincing others to take action?
Attitude: How positive is the individual’s attitude? Do they perceive a glass to be half-empty or half-full?
Communication Skills: How precisely does the individual communicate, both verbally and in writing? Are their communications clear and effective?
Competitiveness: How competitive is the individual? How does their competitiveness manifest itself?
Energy: How energetic is the individual? Are they always “on the go”, or do they need to be prodded into action?
Independence: How readily does the individual accept direction from others?
Learning Rate: How rapidly does the individual learn new information? What styles of learning are most productive for them?
Tolerance for Administration: How willing is the individual to perform administrative activities? How much attention do they pay to details?

The assessment test scores for the preceding characteristics can also be used to predict how effectively a salesperson or sales candidate will perform the following critical job functions:
Are they a Hunter or a Farmer? Do they prefer to pursue new business, or do they prefer to manage existing customer relationships? Or, are they capable of performing both functions effectively?
Are they Internally or Externally motivated? Internally motivated salespeople are capable of directing their own activities. Externally motivated salespeople require frequent direction and support from their manager in order to be consistently effective.
How effectively will they Prospect? How aggressively (and consistently) will they pursue new opportunities?
How willing are they to comply with Administrative Requirements? This may include updating records in your company’s customer relationship management (CRM) system and providing timely and accurate forecasts and opportunity pipeline updates.
Will they be a good Team Member? Will they work cooperatively with their fellow sales team members, as well as other departments?
How can specialized sales assessment tests help existing salespeople who are struggling?

They can help in two specific ways. First, they can determine which salespeople should be in sales. If an individual doesn’t have the talents required for success in your company’s sales job, there may be other roles in your organization where their talents and interests can be applied to mutual benefit. If there aren’t any such positions available, the kindest thing you can do is to let them go.

How can firing someone be kind? Because it is NO fun to struggle in a job that is a poor fit. If you share the assessment test results with these individuals, they can gain insights into their strongest talents and interests. The sooner they can migrate into roles that are compatible with their talents and interests, the sooner they will reap the benefits of improved productivity, motivation, and job satisfaction.

The second way these assessment tests can help struggling salespeople is by identifying their unique training needs. If you identify each salesperson’s individual training needs, and you supply targeted training to address these needs, you can dramatically improve their performance. Here’s an example:

Two fictitious salespeople, Beth and Bill, work for the same company. Beth is weak in Sales Drive, which makes her reluctant to ask for orders. Bill is weak in Emotional Toughness, which makes him sensitive to rejection and limits his prospecting effectiveness. If Beth and Bill go through the same sales skills training course, how much improvement in sales performance should they expect to see?

The answer is little or none. Why? Because Beth and Bill have completely different training needs that will not be addressed by basic sales skills training.

Beth would benefit most from attending an assertiveness training class. She also needs coaching to help her recognize that failing to ask for orders denies her customers valuable solutions to costly business problems.

Bill needs to learn to not take rejection personally. He might also benefit from attending a class that teaches positive thinking and other motivational techniques.

Unfortunately, unless these two salespeople are made aware of their unique training needs, and provided with targeted training to address them, there isn’t much reason to expect their performance to improve.

Conclusion

Many companies struggle with “80/20″ performance disparities in their sales organizations. These disparities usually result from an over-reliance on subjective information when making salesperson hiring and coaching decisions. The proposed solution is to add objective information gathered via specialized sales assessment tests to the “people decision” process. This one change can help companies increase the proportion of top performers on their sales teams and improve the performance of existing sales team members.

We spent many years answering letters, faxes, phone calls and emails and developed a philosophy regarding Customer Support that I’d like to share and encourage you to adopt.  Here is our take on Customer Service from the viewpoint of a marketer.

The purpose of a HelpDesk for a company like ours is to:

• Listen to our Client’s issues and respond in a timely manner with answers designed to resolve their issues.
• Delight our Clients and Users to such a degree that they recommend our products and services to others.
• Increase our own cycles of learning to improve our products and services faster than our competition is able to.

When you implement this in your business, the most likely end result is positive word of mouth marketing which brings in many more leads and that is something we really appreciate.

Here’s a simple recipe for QR code success.

If you are going to implement a campaign using QR codes, be sure that the codes
- are displayed in locations that have reasonable cell phone reception
- are clear and easy to read using a variety of devices including low resolution cameras

Instead of linking directly to a youtube video, consider creating a mobile friendly site or web page with the video embedded and a backup option with text instructions and images in case the video refuses to load.

Be sure to track those clicks and put analytics on your landing page to gauge the effectiveness of the campaign and the browser / device breakdown of people pinging the QR code.

Remember to include a couple of simple social media sharing options and you have the makings of a great mobile & social media campaign without too much effort.

It’s been more than a year now and my Macbook pro is traveling less frequently with me. Truth be told, I rely much more on my iPad when I’m out on the road. It’s light, it’s sturdy, it’s easy to use, it’s all backed up.. it’s a wonderful tool. As I gained experience, I learned a few tricks that help me be more productive and I’d like to share a few of them with you.

Tablets were simply not designed for major data entry tasks. That’s why so many of us have bought add-on keyboards for their iPads. Despite their compact size, lugging around a keyboard even if it is built into the iPad case defeats one of the main reasons for leaving your laptop at home (the weight). I really wanted a lighter load and now I can manage pretty well using the iPad’s onscreen keyboard along with these helpful shortcuts and tips. Let’s start with a two for one deal…

Extend your battery life AND ensure that there is enough free memory at the same time:
Double-clicking the Home button opens up the memory tray on the bottom of the screen. This shows you how many Apps are currently active on your device – the more active apps you have, the quicker the iPad’s battery will drain. To remove an App from memory, press and hold its icon until it wiggles and then press the minus sign in the top-left corner of the icon. Once an offending App is removed from memory, your battery will return the favor offering you more play time. If you even need to drain your battery, simply launch the Skype App and within a few hours your battery will be sucked dry.

Use Spotlight to launch Apps:
This habit took me a long time to break because I consider myself a highly organized individual and I like to know where things are. I use folders for my Apps to keep the screens uncluttered but, if you are like me and have more than 100 Apps plus the default Apps from iOS, then the quickest way to open an App is by typing its name in the Spotlight search box. To access Spotlight from the main iPad screen, press the Home button or swipe to the right. As you enter the App’s name in the search box, a list of Apps and files appears that match the word or phrase that you typed. (You can refine Spotlight’s search preferences in the Settings screens) Select the appropriate entry to launch the app or open the file.

Use the magnifying glass to make text corrections easier: The iPad’s magnifying glass feature often lets me position the cursor at your preferred insertion / deletion point more precisely.
I may not be the best typist in the world and my fingers may be a bit larger than the hand model’s used in the iPad TV ads but I no longer fumble to place the cursor precisely where I need it to be to add or delete text. Now I press and hold on text to activate the magnifying glass, which lets me slide smoothly through text to the required insertion/deletion point.

Ignore periods: When you get to the end of a sentence, press the spacebar twice to automatically allow iOS to insert a period and a single space.

Umlauts and accents: Press and hold various other letters on the keyboard to access such characters as ö,ü,é,ñ and more.

Modify keyboard defaults: In the iPad Settings screen, select Keyboard in the General category, and switch on / off the features that help you work faster such as auto-capitalization, auto-correction and the spell checker. This screen also allows you to add international keyboard layouts as well.

Quicker apostrophes: Instead of switching to the alternative keyboard layout, just swipe up on the comma key to insert an apostrophe!

Ditto for quotes: Swiping up on the question mark key inserts double quotes and on the exclamation mark key you get a single quote. That’s a great help for me.

Instead of retyping or backspacing and then retyping text, try using the ‘Replace’ feature:
Sometimes the iPad’s type-ahead suggestions are time-savers, but I just as often inadvertently insert the wrong word and have to back up to correct it. In many cases, I can avoid having to retype the entire word by selecting it, and then pressing and choosing Replace to see the iPad’s suggested corrections. The method is often quicker than retyping the entire word (if the word is longer than 8 characters.. It may just be my experience, but I think the suggested replacement text is getting better the more I use it.

If you start each marketing campaign, each landing page by addressing the following 3 questions about your expected outcome, your conversions will increase dramatically. This is best practice folks and it is very important that every marketer is able to address and implement several of the following concepts if they expect online marketing to pay off.

What exactly do you want your prospects to do when they receive your message?
Do you want them to click on a link? Do you want them to watch a video? What specifically are you’re trying to get them to do?

My next question is what do you want them to think?

The final question is how do you want them to feel?

Your responses to these three questions steer your ROI in dramatic ways.

Once you’re done with that, begin embedding emotional triggers that help to get commitment from your target audience.. Begin by asking yourself:

• How can I create an element of reciprocity to accomplish that outcome?
• How can I influence what they’re going to do… what they’re going to think… and what they’re going to feel?

Then ask yourself:

• How can I use elements of contrast to do that?
• How can I use social media ‘liking’ to do that?
• How can I use association to do that?
• How can I use expectancy to do that?
• How can I use consistency to do that?
• How can I use scarcity or urgency to do that?
• How can I use conformity or going with the crowd to do that?
• How can I use power and authority to go with that?
• How can I get them more engaged in the message?

The result is rather straight forward:
The more triggers you leverage, the better your page will perform.

Good luck and let me know how your campaigns are going via the comments below or email if you need to maintain confidentiality.

99.7% of Android smart phones are leaking login data for Google services!
German security researchers Bastian Könings, Jens Nickels, and Florian Schaub from the University of Ulm claim that this also allows access to information stored in the cloud!

Now, I don’t normally want to write about security issues on mobile devices, but this just captured my attention and I could not shake it loose.

The problem seems to be in the way that Android Apps request authentication tokens. These tokens eliminate the need for users to login to a particular service, but these tokens are sometimes sent in plaintext form over wireless networks and that means that anyone eavesdropping on the WiFi network could capture and use these tokens.

Even worse is that tokens are not specific to the handset, which means that a token destined for one handset could be used on another!

I don’t want to sound pessimistic but this wreaks of rushed technology architecture and extremely poor planning when it comes to probability and seriousness of risks inherent with the current Android OS processes that developers follow when delivering Apps to the growing Android user base.

The implications of this vulnerability go from simple disclosure to unwillingly sharing your calendar data. With regard to contact info (your address book on the mobile device), it means that the private information from your contacts is also affected – including phone numbers, home addresses, email addresses etc. If you were the malicious type or simply a corporate spy, you’d probably not consider stealing the info but rather changing it so that emails that the user thinks are being sent to a certain recipient would be sent to another email address instead (without the target knowing about it until it was too late)… given what we’ve seen in recent Wall street news… it would not take a rocket scientist to change a stored email address for the target’s business partners in the hopes of receiving confidential information that could be used for personal gain.

Many of these tokens are valid for 14 days, which means that someone stealing your Android App login token could have two weeks of access to your data!

Grabbing these tokens is child’s play.

Imagine, going to a place in a city where you gain access to a WIFI network called Starbucks or Freenet or MOBILENET etc and you find out that access is FREE and FAST. Would you use it? If you answered yes, you need to understand that with its default settings, Android phones automatically connect to a previously known network and many apps will attempt syncing as soon as the internet connection has been established. While syncing would likely fail (unless the operator of this fake hotspot forwards the requests), they would capture authTokens for each service on your device that attempted to sync. Then, this thief can make use of your tokens and gain access to your data (typically from a different location).

So, what can you do if you rely on your Android handset and Google services to get your work done?

1- Upgrade your handset to a version of Android that offers full HTTPS support for syncing with Google services such as calendar and contacts. If your telco doesn’t offer it… ask them specifically for help to protect your privacy. Some telcos force their users to remain with a particularly vulnerable version of Android , you may have to wait weeks or months for this update from your carrier, or worse still you may never see it.
2- Be suspicious of any free WiFi connection… it’s always a game of quid pro quo
3- Do not use Apps containing private data on WiFi connections that you do not trust.
4- Switch off automatic sync when using open WiFi hotspots (they are not to be trusted).

Let’s face it, a lot of people in the business world today do a great job delivering results for their Clients but many hit a wall when it comes to scalability. The issue is simple… there are only 24 hours in a day and of those hours, only 4 during which one can really be productive. Delegation is a must if you want to get ahead and actually assume the role of manager rather than coordinator or key account manager.

Most of us never really learned how to delegate effectively and thus, we control way too much rather than teaching, coaching and inspiring our staff to perform at the same level as we perform for our Clients each day. There is no magic pill here, just a simple process to get you started and some best practices that we picked up along the way.

It all starts with hiring ‘A’ players and giving them both the authority and ability to perform their jobs and reach mutually agreeable objectives but, before I get ahead of myself… let’s start with an example of the viscous cycle.

THE SUPERVISOR’S LAMENT:
“I don’t have enough time to do everything that needs to be done!”

There are really only four options:

• Don’t do some of the things
• Make the day longer!
• Use the time available more effectively.
• Delegate some of it.

Clearly the best option above is to delegate some of the tasks but how do you delegate effectively? Let’s explore a few of the barriers to effective delegation first.

BARRIERS TO DELEGATION:

• I haven’t got the time (It will take longer to explain it than to do it
 myself)

• I lack confidence in my staff (They won’t do it properly/on time
- I can do it better myself)

• I’m the supervisor so I’m responsible(People expect me to know the answers/get the
  job done)

• I’m afraid (I’ll impose on others
- I’ll be disliked/resented
- They’ll be after my job
- I won’t be needed any more)

• I don’t know how to delegate

Here’s a little tip:
YOU CAN DELEGATE AUTHORITY BUT YOU CAN NEVER DELEGATE RESPONSIBILITY

So that we are all on the same page… let’s define the word
DELEGATION:
DEFINITION:

“Achieving results, by empowering and motivating others to carry out, to an agreed level of performance, tasks for which you are ultimately responsible.”

Please read and re-read the definition and commit it to memory. It will surely be handy to remember as you embark on this journey ;-)

If you invest time in Coaching your staff, they will likely become more competent and be able to take more off your shoulders. In this way the vicious cycle can be broken.
Coaching is a short term investment for the long term gains of improved performance; more independent and capable staff; and more time for you to concentrate on your role as supervisor.

REASONS FOR OVER/UNDER DELEGATING
Over Delegation

When tasks are delegated which fall within the area of ‘supervisory tasks’, this is known as over delegation.  Normally this would be considered to be an unacceptable practice, although there are certain circumstances under which delegation of these tasks would be acceptable.
Unacceptable reasons would include that the supervisor:
Dislikes the task
Is too lazy to do the task
Delegates to prove authority
Thinks everything should be delegated.
Some acceptable reasons would be:
Training/Coaching: where the task is normally done by the supervisor, but is delegated as part of a training session.
Succession planning: where an individual has been identified for potential promotion, or to deputize in the absence of the supervisor, certain tasks may be delegated which would normally be done by the supervisor.

EFFECTS OF OVER OR UNDER DELEGATING
The effects on the team leader who delegates too much, or too little are:
Too much:

• Causes resentment
• Loses respect
• Loses touch, and maybe loses control

Too little:

• Is overworked
• Has no time for planning
• Makes no provision for work being done in his absence
• Makes no provision for work being done in his absence
• Is despised by the team
• Is taken advantage of by the team

The effects on the team when the leader delegates too much or too little are:
Too much:

• Team is overworked and inefficient
• Team is prone to making mistakes
• Team resents the leader
• Staff turnover is high

Too little:

• Individuals don’t develop
• Motivation is low
• Team becomes complacent
• Team feels insecure

So… what can you do?

Here are 3 helpful tips from our manual on best practices on the process of effective delegation – they have worked beautifully with several of our Clients over the past decade and I hope that you get similar results. If you need some help implementing the following, just drop us a line.

THE 10 COMMANDMENTS OF DELEGATION

1. Choose the right person
2. ‘Sel’egate
   • WIIFM
   • IMPORTANCE
3. Coach
4. Specify results
5. Talk it through
   • How?
   • Action Plan
   • Deadlines
6. Never tell when you can ask
7. Give authority
8. Monitor implementation
9. Regular review/feedback
1
10. Support
11. TRUST THEM!

The Delegation Process
(Some Key Points in a bit more detail)

1. Deciding what to delegate = planning
   • Examine your own work and decide what can be delegated.
   • Plan to delegate now, do not wait for a crisis.
   • Decide the outcomes to be achieved, not the activities involved.
   • Plan the limits of the task, resources and time required.
   • Think about the criteria for measurement and control.
   • Decide on the person.
   • Think about what support the person will need.
2. Selling
   • Decide how to ‘sell’ it to the person involved
   • Ensure initial briefing is clear
   • Invest time in the briefing
   • check understanding and
   • choose  the time and place carefully
3. Their Plan of Action
   • Ask what they plan to do and how they plan to do it.
   • Ask about the timetable and what control check they will use.
   • Agree the reporting back method and the frequency.
4. Implement and never tell what you can ask
   • When you spot a problem, or potential problem, and they do not, ask questions.
   • When things go wrong, ask questions.  Let them solve the problem with your support.
   • Do not take the task back, unless the circumstances are exceptional.
   • Remember your responsibilities and use mistakes to learn and to plan for the future.
   • Inform others what you have delegated and to whom.
5. Follow up and …
   • Carry out the agreed reporting procedures.
   • Encourage and give credit for good performance.
   • Trust them.

My favorite delegation acronym is SMART, or better still, SMARTER. It’s a quick checklist for effective delegation and it’s more than 50 years old – it goes like this:

Delegated tasks must be:
•    Specific
•    Measurable
•    Agreed
•    Realistic
•    Timebound
•    Ethical
•    Recorded

In a nutshell… that’s all you really need to get started with delegation. If you have questions or comments, please feel free to share your thoughts with us – we’d love to hear from you.

Once upon a time in a farmhouse not too far away, a mouse peered through a hole in the wall and watched as a farmer’s wife opened a small package.  The mouse went into a state of shock and awe when the package contents turned out to be a mousetrap!

The mouse immediately ran into the barnyard to warn the other animals, “Hey guys, there’s a mousetrap in the farmhouse!”

The hen clucked “It’s not my problem!  I’m not a mouse.”

The pig responded.  “Sorry to hear the news, but all I can do is recommend that you don’t get caught in it.”

“It’s really no big deal, just ignore the thing.” said the cow.

The mouse returned to his little hole in the wall to wait for the farmer and his wife to go to sleep so that he could begin his daily quest for a bit of leftover cheese in the darkness.  The sudden snapping sound of the mousetrap disfiguring its prey caught everyone by surprise.

The first on the scene was the farmer’s wife. She was half asleep and failed to notice the venomous snake on the floor until it bit her. The snake apparently entered the house looking for a rodent dinner when it got caught in the trap.  The farmer rushed his wife to the hospital for treatment and then brought her back to the farm where the side-effects from the drugs and venom antidote created a high fever and excruciating pain.

On the premise that chicken soup would reduce the fever, the farmer sacrificed his chicken for the soup.  But the wife’s condition did not improve. Friends provided help around the clock so that the farmer could tend to his crops and animals.  In order to feed them the farmer butchered the pig.  Alas, the wife did not survive the week and hundreds more came to her funeral forcing the farmer to slaughter the cow to provide enough meat for the hungry and respectful crowd.

The mouse watched the events unfold with great sadness from his little hole in the wall. All his barnyard friends (the ones who ignored his warning) were now gone.

We all know stories like that:  we see a problem and try to warn our co-workers but they just don’t see the big picture until it’s too late.

When one area of your company is in trouble, chances are good that the entire company’s performance will feel the impact.  For example, if there are issues with production, sales will be impacted when Customers don’t receive their orders on time. Similarly, sales may be slow and it is only a question of when production will be reduced to reflect the decrease in demand.

Phone lines and websites that can’t keep up with demand can shut down an operation overnight and permanently damage the brand and your reputation even if sales are high and production is on schedule.  A natural disaster such as snowstorm, hail, hurricane or flood will derail the most efficient of businesses unless contingency plans are in place for remote operation.

It really does not matter if you are a one-person operation or a team player in a major corporation, you should always be prepared and ask yourself:  What could go wrong?

At BoxOnline, we call this process Protecting the Plan.

Protect Your Plan - Put our PPA Process to work today

A planned response to situations that have the potential for wiping out profit and ruining your business is what gives you that extra edge should disaster strike.

Setting up a contingency plan or taking preventative measures to minimize the most likely causes of potential problems are two processes that you can initiate immediately. We have well over a decade of Client experience Protecting The Plan and look forward to helping you and your team feel more at ease, knowing that you are prepared for the worst.

Remember the lesson many of us learned in school, the time to study for a test is before you take it.

Be prepared, or be prepared to fail.

Dan Ariely has a fascinating story to share about irrational behavior…

His book held my full attention for several hours and in addition to being a good writer, Dan is a superb public speaker. The presentation you are about to watch, offers some insight into how people make decisions. You may want to check any preconceived notions at the door, this video offers a glimpse into the reality of how effective marketing can be when the marketer is able to tap into a predictable pattern of behavior. Naturally, our consultants leverage many of the concepts that Dan covers in this video but, I did not want to sell you on our services here… I simply wanted to share great video content, especially when the speaker is a professor at MIT. The presentation is refreshing and interesting but above all else, Predictably Irrational.