Keith Rosen's Executive Sales Coaching Blog on Selling, Leadership, Management

Time To Quit Your Job? Ten Signs That Suggest You’re Ready For A Career Change

Apr 30, 2008 Business Coaching, Career Advice, Executive Coaching, Life Coaching and Career Coaching, Live Responsibly: Life Tips, Great Living, coaching articles, coaching tips

When do you know it’s time to quit your job and move on to a more promising opportunity? Here are ten signs that would suggest it’s time for you to re-examine your career path and move on.

The Top Ten Signs That Tell You It’s Time To Quit Your Job

I remember years ago when researching people’s sense of satisfaction and fulfillment in the workforce, the statistic at that time was that about 80% of the people in the work force were not happy at their job. Today, that percentage is even higher. And in my line of work, it doesn’t come as a shock to me, especially with the way I see people making career decisions and the tyrannical managers who they are unfortunate enough to have manage them. The bigger question is; “When do you know it’s time to quit your job?” Here are ten signs that would suggest that you need to move on and re-examine your career path.

Hate Your Boss but Love Your Job? Eight Things You Can Do to Better Manage Your Career – And Your Manager

Apr 29, 2008 Business Advice, Career Advice, Executive Coaching, Life Coaching and Career Coaching, Live Responsibly: Life Tips, Great Living, Sales Management, coaching for managers, coaching tips

Unfortunately, with all of the resources, news, studies and empirical evidence that demonstrates how traditional management tactics do not work, supporting the need for managers to evolve and change the way they manage to maximize employee productivity and retention, the Toxic Boss still exists out there, causing havoc and making people’s lives miserable. These tyrannical dinosaurs of management still think this is the only way to manage; through the use of force, coercion, threats, fear and consequence. So, what do you do if you love your job but hate your boss? Here are a few ideas:

1. WRITE your JOB Description: Not the one they handed you in the hr package. The one YOU want to design the way you envision what your ideal job would look like, including the specific activities you’d be engaging in daily.

2. Set your BOUNDARIES! (They probably don’t have any set or have no clue what a boundary even is.)

3. STOP TOLERATING: Establish what you are willing to tolerate and what you are no longer willing to put up with. That includes how people treat you, as well as how they speak to you. Tolerating is ultimately a CHOICE.

4. Check Your INTEGRITY. Ever feel something is just ‘off?’ Could manifest as feeling, a sense, in your gut, your instincts. That’s the feeling you get when you’re out of your integrity. That is, what you do to keep yourself whole and complete and in balance with your world and in check otherwise = > imbalance in all areas of life.

5. LIVE Your Standards: What are the rules and guidelines you live by? How are you being in thought, communication, activities and behavior when you’re fully self-expressed? Your standards are the fabric of your integrity.

6. Manage the FEAR: Either you’re running away from what you don’t want or being pulled by the goal and vision of what you want to create most for your self in your career and your life. The fact is, your fears aren’t real but your making important life decisions as if they were.

7. COACH UP! Learn how to coach your supervisor or boss. Speak with you boss about how you want to be managed, re-train people how they can respond to you in a healthier non toxic way.

8.Get Your NEEDS MET: Here’s a paradox: The very place that the majority of the people on the planet go to get their personal needs met is at the office. Ironically, you can’t get your PERSONAL needs met at work but how many people do you know who define themselves by their career? Time for a MindShift and my favorite four words. It’s Only a Job. If you know someone who thrives and needs to be acknowledged in order to function at their best, it’s time to go deeper and get that need met-permanently so you can transition to being driven by your values, instead of your needs.

Hate Your Boss but Love Your Job? Eight Things You Can Do to Better Manage Your Career – And Your Manager

Apr 29, 2008 Business Advice, Career Advice, Executive Coaching, Life Coaching and Career Coaching, Live Responsibly: Life Tips, Great Living, Sales Management, coaching for managers, coaching tips

Unfortunately, with all of the resources, news, studies and empirical evidence that demonstrates how traditional management tactics do not work, supporting the need for managers to evolve and change the way they manage to maximize employee productivity and retention, the Toxic Boss still exists out there, causing havoc and making people’s lives miserable. These tyrannical dinosaurs of management still think this is the only way to manage; through the use of force, coercion, threats, fear and consequence. So, what do you do if you love your job but hate your boss? Here are a few ideas:

1. WRITE your JOB Description: Not the one they handed you in the hr package. The one YOU want to design the way you envision what your ideal job would look like, including the specific activities you’d be engaging in daily.

2. Set your BOUNDARIES! (They probably don’t have any set or have no clue what a boundary even is.)

3. STOP TOLERATING: Establish what you are willing to tolerate and what you are no longer willing to put up with. That includes how people treat you, as well as how they speak to you. Tolerating is ultimately a CHOICE.

4. Check Your INTEGRITY. Ever feel something is just ‘off?’ Could manifest as feeling, a sense, in your gut, your instincts. That’s the feeling you get when you’re out of your integrity. That is, what you do to keep yourself whole and complete and in balance with your world and in check otherwise = > imbalance in all areas of life.

5. LIVE Your Standards: What are the rules and guidelines you live by? How are you being in thought, communication, activities and behavior when you’re fully self-expressed? Your standards are the fabric of your integrity.

6. Manage the FEAR: Either you’re running away from what you don’t want or being pulled by the goal and vision of what you want to create most for your self in your career and your life. The fact is, your fears aren’t real but your making important life decisions as if they were.

7. COACH UP! Learn how to coach your supervisor or boss. Speak with you boss about how you want to be managed, re-train people how they can respond to you in a healthier non toxic way.

8.Get Your NEEDS MET: Here’s a paradox: The very place that the majority of the people on the planet go to get their personal needs met is at the office. Ironically, you can’t get your PERSONAL needs met at work but how many people do you know who define themselves by their career? Time for a MindShift and my favorite four words. It’s Only a Job. If you know someone who thrives and needs to be acknowledged in order to function at their best, it’s time to go deeper and get that need met-permanently so you can transition to being driven by your values, instead of your needs.

Coaching Salespeople into Sales Champions Makes #1 Best Seller

Apr 22, 2008 Books by Keith Rosen, Executive Coaching, Sales Management, coaching for managers, coaching tips, management articles, management tips, training for managers

Get Coaching Salespeople into Sales Champions and Get $2,431.35 of Additional Materials From Today’s Top Business Leaders.
Details Here

In just 72 hours, my new book Coaching Salespeople into Sales Champions (34% off: $19.77, Hardcover) made #1 on Amazon’s Best Seller List! Due to the overwhelming response, I decided to extend a grace period for this special offer to receive these bonus materials until Friday, May 2, 2008.

If you’re responsible for coaching or managing anyone, especially salespeople, this book will help you make the transition from manager to coach by developing the missing discipline of leadership – executive sales coaching. Most managers have never been trained to manage, let alone coach effectively. Discover a tactical coaching system for managers, business owners, coaches and executives – anyone who wants a proven and powerful method to coach and develop true champions.

There’s a huge bonus offer if you buy the book now—33 other authors and companies are generously giving away their ebooks, videos, audios and other valuable tools.

The book by itself is a great value considering you can get it for 34% off. Additionally you can get $2,431.35 of valuable materials from some of the greatest business minds around such as Dr. Tony Alessandra, Zig Ziglar, Tom Hopkins, Jim Cathcart, Jill Konrath, Ben Mack, Dave Lakhani, Bob Kantin, Michael Nick, CanDoGo.com, SalesDog.com, Landslide, Salesopedia.com, Salesconx, SalesHQ.com, SalesGravy.com and more, but you have to order before midnight, May 2 to get these extra resources. It’s like getting a library of powerful resources for every area of your life and career.

This offer was graciously extended once so don’t miss out a second time. Full details click here.

Get Coaching Salespeople into Sales Champions and tons of extra materials from today’s top business leaders. Email your receipt to newbook@profitbuilders.com to receive your bonus package.

Order the book here.

Coaching Tip From the Sidelines: Ask Your Employees How They Want To Be Coached – Set the Expectation

Apr 21, 2008 Books by Keith Rosen, Communication, How to Manage Your Team, Sales Management, articles on leadership, coaching articles, coaching for managers, coaching tips, management articles, management tips, training for managers

How do we uncover internal drive? By using one of the most valuable tools as a coach – asking more and better questions. To uncover each person’s internal drive, schedule one to one meetings with each member of your team and invest the time asking questions to uncover what is important to them. Listen to their responses and ask more questions as you uncover what they most want.

Here are some suggested questions you can use during your one to one meetings in order to tap into a person’s internal drive, while uncovering exactly how you can best coach and manage them.

Questions will assist your employees in uncovering what internally motivates them based on their beliefs and values, so they can access their own energy to achieve it. You are also uncovering the style of management they respond to best. Moreover, you are setting up the expectations on both sides as to what to expect from one another. It certainly beats using your energy to push or stimulate interest or action based on your assumptions or beliefs based on what may work for you.

If you rely on pushing to get someone into action, they won’t move unless you’re there to push. It’s more effective to help them articulate what they want so they can begin to self-motivate.

The real benefit of getting this is that empowering people by tapping into their internal drive doesn’t drain your energy. Pushing for results is exhausting.

Get more coaching tips from Coaching Salespeople into Sales Champions.

Coaching Tips From the Sidelines: Make Acknowledgment Unconditional, Measurable and Specific

Apr 18, 2008 Books by Keith Rosen, Executive Coaching, Sales Management, articles on leadership, coaching for managers, coaching tips, management articles, management tips, training for managers

Tips From the Sidelines: Make Acknowledgment Unconditional, Measurable and Specific

Communicate from Abundance Rather Than From Scarcity

What do people want most in their career? Statistics show that people want the positive reinforcement and acknowledgement that lets them know they are doing a good job.

The number one issue people have in the workforce today is, “Will I be valued and will I have a job in the future?” You want the people who are working for you to want to be there. Otherwise, what do you think they are going to spend their time doing?

Yet what do managers do to acknowledge their people’s value and appease their concerns? Instead, managers focus more on the problems coming at them rather than on their team’s achievements or solutions to drive continued, sustainable growth; continually putting out fires and jumping from one problem to the next.

The byproduct of acknowledgement is you build morale which breeds the type of culture that you are looking to create. Ask yourself, do you get acknowledged for something on a daily basis? Chances are, if you have not been the recipient of consistent, positive and authentic praise, then you may be conditioned that acknowledgment is not all that critical or effective. After all, we’ve learned from our predecessors. Just ask yourself, how often do you authentically acknowledge people on a daily basis?

Why don’t we praise our employees enough? Why are we so stingy with our acknowledgement? What are we afraid might happen? Do we feel that we only have a limited supply of acknowledgment and we don’t want to use it up?

Oh I can see it now. Here’s the visual, You are in your office one day and one of your salespeople comes over to you and says, “I just want you to know that I’ve noticed you are taking more time and interest in my work and with the positive reinforcement I’m getting around my behavior that’s generating some worthwhile results, I’m getting the sense that you are appreciating what I’m doing here more and more. Well, I just want you to know that you are making me feel just too good about myself and the company so, this has just got to stop!”

While this is an obvious exaggeration, the real truth is, we don’t acknowledge others more often because we either don’t know how to and are a bit reluctant to do so, are afraid if we acknowledge people too much they’ll start to slack off, simply don’t think it’s really all that important or we are afraid that it won’t come across as genuine.

They key to using positive reinforcement and acknowledgment as a powerful, motivating tool is to use it authentically, measurably and unconditionally, rather than issuing generic blanket and hollow statements of praise that sound like, “Good work!” Instead, recognize when something specific has occurred. Notice what the person did or how they have grown and praise them for who they are and who they are becoming.

General recognition such as, “I love the work you’re doing” or “You did a great job,” is not enough. It can actually backfire to work against you if the person you’re delivering the acknowledgement to feels it’s either inauthentic, conditional, a manipulative strategy or believes you have your own agenda attached to it. That’s why when you give genuine, honest acknowledgement; make sure it’s specific and measurable.

Be as specific and as measurable as you can be with your praise. Reinforce a behavior, activity, change, mindset or technique that you noticed which made a profound impact on their success and the results they’ve achieved. By acknowledging a specific behavior, the person knows what to reinforce and do the next time they tackle that task. In essence, you are reinforcing best practices while they’re doing it.

Here are three examples:

“You really demonstrated your ability to effectively follow up with Mary Johnson, the last sale you made. Your persistence, the way you specifically approached the conversation with Mrs. Johnson and the steps you took when honoring your selling system turned that volatile prospect into a happy customer. This is certainly an accomplishment to feel proud of.”

“I really appreciate you honoring this deadline and turning this proposal around for me so quickly, even with all of the other priorities that are on your plate. Your work through this process is a testament to your commitment to doing what it really takes to effectively manage an overwhelming workload.”

“I knew you could do an exceptional job on managing that new project and getting the team involved in completing it-and you proved me right! There were many opportunities to lose your cool or dump this project on to someone else but you maintained a positive attitude and a steadfast work ethic. I just want you to know I truly admire that in you and your commitment to see this through to completion.”

If your appreciation of a person’s efforts is truly authentic and sincere, you have the power to make an employee’s day. Besides, how else do your employees know if they are doing a great job? When they don’t hear about problems?” I have yet to hear about someone who left an organization because they were appreciated too much.

Since your people know the behavior to reinforce, your recognition will further sharpen their ability to self-generate results and solutions on their own rather than continually run to you.

Get more coaching tips from Coaching Salespeople into Sales Champions.

Barriers to Coaching a Sales Team: #8 and 9-Full Accountability and Competitive Managers

Apr 17, 2008 Books by Keith Rosen, Executive Coaching, How to Manage Your Team, Sales Management, coaching articles, coaching for managers, coaching tips, management tips, training for managers

72 Hour Special Book Event April 15 – 17. Ends Tonight.

Barrier Eight: Full Accountability
If you want to become powerful, hire a powerful coach. It’s a simple, yet highly effective strategy. If you want your salespeople to be powerful, you need to be a good role model for them. As you evolve, so does your team. Consider this truth: Your team is a reflection of you. If you’re not prepared to be 100 percent accountable for the success and failure of your team, if you skirt accountability in any way, if you lack professionalism or proficiencies in certain areas, your team will reflect these weaknesses. If you choose to evolve, so will your salespeople. If you want a world-class sales team, you have to become a world-class executive sales coach.

Barrier Nine: Competitive Managers
The most effective leaders develop other leaders. They encourage their people to perform as well as they do—even better. That is the sign of a true master and the real testament of a great manager. But what if the manager perceives his coworkers and subordinates as a threat? What if the manager is driven strictly by ego, the need to prove himself and his worth? What if this manager thinks he has survived only by keeping a competitive distance from his peers and salespeople? I’ve known managers who don’t share their tools and best practices with their salespeople for fear their salespeople will outdo them. These are likely to be inferior managers who will seek to selfishly leverage the coaching relationship in a way to better themselves and their position rather than for the betterment of their sales team.

Get the book 37% off and hundreds of dollars worth of additional materials here.

Annihilating the Albatross of Leadership

Apr 17, 2008 Books by Keith Rosen, Executive Coaching, How to Manage Your Team, Sales Management, coaching articles, coaching for managers, management tips, training for managers

72 Hour Special Book Event April 15 – 17

Great managers realize that one of their key roles is to maximize the productivity of their team and ensure they are operating at peak performance. The consequences of not having your sales team live up to their potential are severe: a decrease in sales, lower morale, higher turnover, and client attrition. Additionally, there’s the stress every manager feels from the added workload each time there’s a vacancy in a position, sales that need to be made, and territories that have to be covered.

Now, compound this challenge with the additional responsibility managers often have. Aside from being responsible for the production and development of their sales team, some managers are often responsible for hitting their own sales numbers and production goals.

With long work hours, deadlines, and personal responsibilities, something gets sacrificed. As such, managers find that developing, coaching, and retaining their staff takes a back seat to the problems and challenges that arise daily. Even with their best intentions, managers don’t often have the time and resources needed to effectively coach their staff or a strategy to identify and develop the essential skills and core characteristics needed to become a masterful coach. As a result, morale and productivity suffer.

Through the eyes of a salesperson, this lack of attention and support translates to a feeling of isolation. Quite often salespeople believe that management simply doesn’t care, won’t take the time to work with them, or simply isn’t available. This environment becomes the perfect breeding ground for high attrition and deteriorating performance.

What is management’s fundamental problem that proliferates dismal results, inefficiency, and failure? While most managers may have the theory down, they struggle to convert these leadership principles into actionable, measurable steps and a process that can be duplicated consistently. Coaching Salespeople into Sales Champions cracks the code and solves the most pressing issues that plague most managers today. This book makes it possible for any manager, business owner, or executive to develop the missing discipline of leadership: coaching.

Most leadership programs train in ideology rather than in developing a core competency or skill. Nothing more gets accomplished other than identifying another great concept in leadership, an overanalyzed theory, or an attribute the greatest leaders possess. Although they are sound principles, they’re devoid of a specific, measurable process and a practical application that generates the results you seek. With a team of salespeople to manage, objectives to reach, and expectations to meet, you need measurable results fast!

Increased global competition, a rapidly changing marketplace, and less face time with customers and employees are forcing companies to reevaluate their selling and leadership strategies. With more business conducted across various communication platforms and more sales teams operating in a virtual environment, these managers question how proficient they can be at managing their team at a distance—especially since they have never been shown how to do so effectively. Managers do not always have the luxury of calling a face-to-face meeting and instead find themselves supporting, coaching, and managing their people over the telephone. Developing and strengthening your telephone coaching skills becomes essential to leveraging your competitive edge or you’re bound to get left behind.

Top leaders know that in order for their people to live their fullest potential every day, they need someone in their corner supporting them throughout the process. As such, a growing need for a proven, long-term solution that can be rapidly deployed to continually develop and retain top talent while maximizing new business opportunities has sparked the evolution of this new kind of manager: the executive sales coach.

** 72 Hour Special Book Event Ends Thursday April 17

Purchase my new book, Coaching Salespeople into Sales Champions on these specific days only, April 15, 16 and 17 and enjoy access to hundreds of dollars worth of additional materials from Dr. Tony Alessandra, Zig Ziglar, Tom Hopkins, Jim Cathcart, Jill Konrath, Dave Lakhani, Bob Kantin, Dr. Rick Kirschner, CanDoGo.com, AllBusiness.com, SalesDog.com and more. Look at the resources you get here.

Remember, this time sensitive event ends April 17 at midnight.

Get the book 37% off and hundreds of dollars worth of additional materials here.

Barriers to Coaching a Sales Team: # 6 – No Judgment? #7 -Anyone Can Manage, Not Everyone Can Coach

Apr 17, 2008 Books by Keith Rosen, Executive Coaching, How to Manage Your Team, Sales Management, articles on leadership, coaching articles, coaching for managers, coaching tips, management tips, training for managers

72 Hour Special Book Event April 15 – 17. Ends Tonight.

Barrier Six: Confidentiality and No Judgment? Sure, Boss!

Lets get right to what you’re thinking. Your role as supervisor or boss presents some inherent problems with coaching that need to be addressed head on.

Given the parameters, guidelines, and principles necessary to be a masterful coach, trust is critical to make the connection. After all, if your employees can’t trust you as their manager, forget even trying to coach them. Coaching requires an elevated level of trust that transcends the superficial trust between employees and management.

And what if some of your salespeople already have a problem with you as their boss and now you’re going to try and coach them? How does that get handled? Do you think any of your employees are going to just come out and say that? Think again.

As a result, this relationship could quickly turn into more of a mentoring rather than a coaching relationship. This is a major reason why companies bring in an expert coach from the outside who doesn’t have any direct ties to the company as a manager would.

Barrier Seven: Anyone Can Manage, Not Everyone Can Coach

“I’m really not cut out to be a coach.” The hard fact is there are managers who want to be coaches, managers who need to be coaches, and managers who shouldn’t be coaches, and probably shouldn’t be managers, either.

Companies that force all managers into a coaching role make a costly assumption that all of their managers would actually make great coaches, just like every college athlete should automatically make the pros. The rules work the same. Desire, attitude, ability, and skill will always be the formula for becoming a successful coach, or athlete. Then there is the mistake of pushing managers to do something they don’t want to do. Managers can easily sabotage their own coaching efforts, and in the end, corporate may learn the wrong lesson: “I guess our internal coaching program didn’t work.”

Get the book 37% off and hundreds of dollars worth of additional materials here.

The Most Remarkable Consortium Of Experts Ever Assembled Supporting: Coaching Salespeople into Sales Champions

Apr 16, 2008 Books by Keith Rosen, Business Advice, Business Tools, Executive Coaching, How to Manage Your Team, Sales Management, coaching for managers, coaching tips, training for managers

72 Hour Special Book Event April 15 – 17. Ends tomorrow.

What do all of these thought leaders, authors and companies have in common? They’re all supporting this 72 Hour Book Launch Event for my new book, Coaching Salespeople into Sales Champions by giving away hundreds of dollars worth of their own valuable resources.

I’m grateful to have each one of them as my valued partner in this event and deeply appreciate their support.

Authors, Speakers, Experts

Zig Ziglar

Tom Hopkins

Dr. Tony Alessandra

Jim Cathcart

Jill Konrath

Lee Salz

Michael Nick

Paul McCord

Andrea Sittig-Rolf

Jonathan Farrington

Vince Thompson

Dave Lakhani

Ron Hubsher

Lori Richardson

Kim George

Randy Pennington

Dave Anderson

Kelley Robinson

Mark Hunter

Bob Kantin

Dr. Rick Kirschner

Lee J. Colan, Ph.D.

Chris Lytle

Peter Radizeski

Companies, Publications

Hoover’s

The Ziglar Corporation

CanDoGo

Landslide

AllBusiness.com

Pepsi

Selling Power

Jigsaw.com

SalesDog.com

24-7 Coaching.com

TopSalesExperts.com

Salesopedia.com

SalesGravy.com

AccountingWEB.com

SalesPractice.com

Get the book 37% off and hundreds of dollars worth of additional materials here.