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MBTI – Getting It Right

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is a very powerful tool that is very flexible and robust and can truly help to move individuals and organisations. Yet too often I come across poor implementation, execution and rollout of MBTI that at best achieves nothing or at worst leaves the client confused or taking inappropriate actions.

Customer Service – Doing It The City Inn Way

There has been more written about customer service than just about any other business topic, so I’m not about to re-write or re-hash customer service words of wisdom that you have all heard many times. Instead I’m going to tell you about a personal experience I had recently which reminded me of some key lessons for customer service. This experience happened at the City Inn hotel in Birmingham.

Get Ready For Next Week - Choosing Your State

Here’s a quick exercise for you.

Partner up with someone, a friend or a colleague.  You are both going to tell a real story and read each other’s mind!  The story is simply a short 60-90 second story on how you arrived here today, your journey.

When telling your story I want you to pick a playing card in your mind without telling your partner what the card is.  You both do this.

Next I want you to tell your story in the style of that playing card, Ace is high and is positive, upbeat, confident, etc., 2 is downbeat, low, uncertain.  All others playing cards are somewhere in between with the appropriate styles.  Now tell you story in the style of the playing card you chose.  All your partner needs to do is guess what playing card you have in mind.  Once you’ve done this one way, switch over and let your partner tell their story while you guess their card.

How did you do?  Did you guess their card or at least guess just one card out?  Easy isn’t it.

Easy to guess the card and read other peoples state and even easier to choose your state at will.  In fact you were so good at choosing your state your partner guessed it within 60 seconds.

As you prepare for next week take time to consider the optimum state you want to be in the key meetings, projects, conversations, emails, commute, etc. next week.  Which playing card do you want to act out for each of these?  Once you have it, do it.

Be Your Own Superbrand – Leadership

We know that superbrands have three common traits – clarity of vision, consistency in what they do and finally leadership.  Take a moment now to consider what leadership is and to do this think of the following:

Which global organisation do you consider to be a leader?

Who did you think of?  Why them?  In what way(s) do they lead?  Ask others the same thing and see if they come out with the same things?

I would guess that with such a simply question you get many different answers.  There’s no surprise there, but did you argue with anyone?  Did anyone come up with an organisation in the same business area that was different from yours?  Can they both be leaders in the same field?

Be Your Own Superbrand – Consistency

Consistency is the most simply thing to do and be – simply be consistent.  How hard can it be?  Well actually it could be quite hard if not very hard.  Why?  Because we change our moods and states of mind almost every second.  Being consistent when there is an ever changing starting point can be tricky.

Be Your Own Superbrand – Clarity

The key to clarity of your own brand is a simple as the 3Cs – Clear values, Consistency and Clarity.  Master the 3Cs and you will achieve clarity in the brand that is you – people will know what you stand for and what it is you do.

Be Your Own Superbrand

The UK recently announced it’s Top 10 Superbrands:

1.       Microsoft

2.       Coca-Cole

3.       Google

4.       BBC

5.       BP

6.       British Airways

7.       Lego

8.       Guinness

9.       Mercedes-Benz

10.   Cadbury

I’m sure you are aware of all or at least most of these companies and of most or some of their products.  You probably even have or use some yourself.  But what is a superbrand, what makes a superbrand?  Perhaps more importantly, could you be a ‘superbrand’?

Authenticity

Authenticity is about being true to your strengths, displaying your credentials, a level of consistency.  Recently I was working with a company with a business model that is built upon partners – partnering with other organisations to generate revenue.  This is a large global company and they give a large amount of attention to detail to the partner and customer experience and they are putting a large amount of energy and resources into improving that whole relationship.  Unfortunately the people I was working with couldn’t see the big picture.  For them it was about improving the relationship to improve revenue, but this is over simplistic and short term.

Get Ready for Next Week: Be Clear

We all like to think we are good communicators, we articulate a clear vision, we are clear while delegating and setting goals.  But how clear are we?  Being clear is not simply speaking clearly or being able to write clear steps.  If the content of what you are saying or the actions cause confusion or conflicting results you need to look back at how clear you were before you start looking at others.

A sure fire sign that you are not being clear in your direction is when you hear yourself say something like “Can you research that and get back to me with the results?” when asking a team member to take action.  Be clear, what is the desired outcome you are looking for?  If you don’t know, don’t set the task.

Next week when others are looking for direction from you, be clear.

If you don’t know what the specific desired outcome is you are looking for then don’t set a vague task.

Look at your teams’ goals – how clear are they?  Could they lead to confused results or take the team in different directions?

Can New Year Resolutions Teach Us Anything About Setting Goals?

I really wanted to avoid an article about New Year Resolutions, at this time of year they are everywhere.  I was going to avoid the subject but then I came across some interesting research on the subject of New Year Resolutions and characteristics of those that are successful.  This led me to wonder if these characteristics could be used in business or learning, as the characteristics are very simple I believe they can.