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Forget REAL GOOD – Remember FEEL GOOD

Tom Asacker said as leaders we need to “forget real good and remember feel good.” Today, he said, there are 5 billion web pages (25 for every man, woman and child in this country) and 6 million going up every day. There are 89 brands of shampoo at Walgreens! Customers are stressed out from information overload and conflicting information…more and more they are relying on their gut…and their feelings to make decisions.

In fact, he said, it really doesn’t matter how customers feel about you and your business. What makes a difference is how your products make them feel about themselves and their decisions. Every psychologist and smart marketer knows that if a man or woman does something and it feels good, they’ll do it again; if it feels bad they won’t do it.

Far too many companies are focused on the product and not the experience. We need to replace our brain with our heart because that’s often how people make decisions. Studies have proven that the essential difference between emotion and reason is that emotion leads to action and reason leads to conclusions. What do you want? Do you want action or do you want people to think?

The question you need to ask is, “How am I making my customers feel?” Am I making them compare or care? There’s a big difference. Caring and feelings drive action…the other stuff is just a tool. The bottom line is that the really hard stuff is the soft stuff…It’s the feelings of your employees and customers. That, in the end, is your competitive advantage.

Watch the You Can’t Send a Duck to Eagle School Movie

How well we communicate is determined not by how well we say things, but how well we are understood.
– Andrew Grove

Today’s quote comes to you from Nuts’nBolts Leadership:

“How To” Strategies and Practical Tips for Leaders at ALL Levels

Today’s Topic: A Garden of Employees
Think of your employees as orchids, daisies, and weeds. Think of yourself as the gardener whose job it is to nurture them to full bloom.

If you could choose the employees you’d most like to work with every day, would you select:

• Orchid employees, who need you to stick close enough to ensure they get just the right amount of – but not too much – sunlight, water, and humidity (read that: directions, feedback, and praise), or else they’ll wither and die?
• Daisy employees, who can yield voluminous blooms (excellent work) in a wide range of temperatures (situations), but still need you to check in every now and then to make sure they are getting adequate water, sunlight, and circulation (coaching, feedback, and opportunity)?
• Or weed employees, who can fend for themselves in almost any situation, leaving you plenty of time to tend to the needier plants in the garden?

When it’s put to them that way, most managers say they would welcome a garden full of weeds.

Find out how to manage your garden of employees with Way To Grow:

Cultivating the Weeds, Daisies, and Orchids in Your Organization

By Linda Galindo

Man cannot live without story any more than he can live without bread.
– Dr. Warren Bennis

Today’s quote comes to you from Talk Ain’t Cheap…It’s Priceless!:

Connecting in a Disconnected World

Avoiding a problem doesn’t solve it.
– Bonnie Jean Thornley

Today’s quote comes to you from The Manager’s Coaching Handbook:

A Practical Guide to Improving Employee Performance

212° Ethics

No, that’s not a cute answer – it’s an accurate one.

Think about it. When is it okay to be unethical? The answer is NEVER! What are the parts of your job – and your human interactions – to which fairness, honesty, respect, and “doing right” don’t apply? THERE ARE NONE! Ethics is not a sometimes thing. It’s an all the time thing – and it’s reflected in everything you do. There are no time outs, no “king’s x’s,” no “too small to matter” issues, no “too busy to do it” excuses, no “too low on the hierarchy to make a difference” people.

Everyone is responsible…everything counts!

You are now aware. With awareness comes responsibility. Responsibility to act.
 
Now, turn up the heat…212°

Pain is temporary. Quitting lasts forever.
– Lance Armstrong

Today’s quote comes to you from Leadership Lessons:

Powerful Quotes & Inspiring Messages…for everyone

Eat That Frog!, by Brian Tracy, is based on Mark Twain’s quote: “If the first thing you do each morning is to eat a live frog, you can go through the day with the satisfaction of knowing that that is probably the worst thing that is going to happen to you all day long.” Timely, compelling, and relevant to the world we live in, this book gives 21 ways to stop procrastinating and get more done in less time. Today’s excerpt, from the gift book edition of the time management classic, discusses the importance of planning. You owe it to yourself to discover what over 500,000 people have already learned: if you want to be successful, you’ve got to Eat That Frog!

Please pass this along to family, friends and coworkers.

To Your Success,

Eric Harvey

EAT THAT FROG: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time

I bear no grudges. I have a mind that retains nothing.
– Bette Midler

Today’s quote comes to you from Forget For Success:

Walking Away from Outdated, Counterproductive Beliefs and People Practices

Business As Usual

Our story begins in the Land of Business as Usual, a place familiar to one and all. It was here that Customer lived – A. Customer, to be more precise.

His needs were simple, his wants were few; just the basics would make him happy. He wanted to buy things; shirts and shoes, food and fun, supplies and staples – the usual stuff.

But the sales people sometimes seemed too busy when A. Customer came along. They were often so involved in their own conversations, they didn’t even notice him!

Once in a while, A. Customer had a problem: something needed fixing; something needed exchanging; a rug needed cleaning; a chair needed upholstering. Nothing extraordinary, just simple stuff.

But the customer service people, who were supposedly there to help, weren’t always so helpful. They would pass A. Customer all around the Land of Business as Usual, sending him from person…to person…to person.

Or, they would tell him to fill out lo-o-o-ng forms and answer questions before they would pay attention to him. Everyone seemed to think A. Customer was just a lot of trouble.

“This would be a great place to work,” they all said, “if only it weren’t for A. Customer.”

Life in the Land of Business as Usual was difficult for A. Customer. Disappointment and frustration seemed to be his fate.

Was there nothing he could do, he often wondered. Did no one care about his wants and needs?

Finally one day, he decided to try a new place…it was on the outskirts of Business as Usual. “Maybe things will be different here,” he thought as he walked through their door. “After all, this place is new.”

Check out Customer at the Crossroads to hear the rest of the story.

Customer at the Crossroads:
From Parable to Practice