Welcome to the pilot episode of Simple Strategies For A Complex World with your host Paul Cummings. Today’s topic is leadership. More specifically, it’s relationship equity. As a business owner, one of the things that Paul knows is the equity we build with our team members is one of the single most important competencies any leader will ever develop.
To learn more about Paul Cummings please visit his wesite at paulcummings.com
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
Paul Cummings: Welcome to Simple Strategies For A Complex World. I’m Paul Cummings, you guest host and creator of the dynamic new program.
What I wanted to do to introduce this education program to you was to give you a forward looking vision of what we plan on doing every single week. After 35 years as a teacher and educator, there’s some things that I’ve learned that I feel are irrevocable when it comes to education.
The first thing is, there’s four key components that your content has to touch. That’s the people, the philosophy of a business, the daily process, and yes, the profit. If we get the people right, if we get our philosophy right, if we get our daily processes right, then we have a reasonable expectation that we can be very, very profitable.
When you think about business today, what’s complex is the pace of change, it really, really is. We’re in a period of rapid and disruptive change. Technology has changed the world we live in, it’s changed, pretty much, everything we do. But there’s something that hasn’t changed and that’s the unique and special, special opportunity we have to build great relationships within our business and with our customers. That’s still something that’s fairly simple if we get our strategies right.
There’s four components that we’re going to focus on, on every single show. If you think about your business, if you think about what you do every day, regardless of your role. Every win you have and every loss or setback you may encounter really fit into one of four categories. Knowledge, sometimes we win because we have it and sometimes we lose because we don’t have the knowledge we need to really be the best at what we do. But we can solve that together. The next is attitude, anybody that thinks mindset is underrated has never really run a successful business. Mindset is everything, and attitude is something that can be developed if it’s turned into a daily goal. But if we can our mind right, if we can get our mindset right, if we can be that company, that individual that operates with an attitude of gratitude, and we can display that to our customers, to our team members, then we can create that special experience that really separates us from the competition in a very positive way.
It’s possible to be really bright, to have a lot of knowledge, and to have a winning attitude and still lose. Now how can that be true? I’ll tell you how it’s true. If you do not turn what you know into something you can actually do, if you don’t have the skill to actually complete the process to take your knowledge and to turn it into a behavior that creates the effect or the unique difference you’re trying to make, well, you can still fail. We’re gonna work a lot on bringing you skills that will enhance your performance.
The last part of the cash process is habits. You know your habits travel with you everywhere you go and they either serve you or they slay you. But, if we can develop winning habit patterns together then we’re gonna be able to create the repetitive behaviors that will stand up, even in the most challenging of times. So, it’s about your people, it’s about your philosophy, it’s about your process, it’s about your profit. And we’re gonna work on developing knowledge, attitude, skills, and habits so we can cash in.
Here’s what you have to look forward to every single week. Our unique brand of energy and enthusiasm and excited, because if you are excited and you stay excited, then your customers will be excited to do business with you and your teams will be excited to work with you. We’re gonna work on that special brand of level, [inaudible 00:04:21], enthusiasm, energy, and excitement.
Here’s something else you can expect. You can expect content that will truly make a difference to each and every one of your team members, both at work, and more importantly, at home. You know, life is a 360 degree circle and if we get ourselves right, business just gets better. You can also expect for us to share life lessons with you that will be impactful. Affirmations with you that will allow you to proclaim those goals you want and then be able to really chase those down with an amazing amount of energy.
So, we’re excited, thanks for tuning in, we look forward to being a part of your world. This is Paul Cummings, Simple Strategies For A Complex World, that will make a difference to you and your team every day, every time, without fail. No exceptions.
Paul Cummings: Today, our topic is leadership. More specifically, it’s relationship equity. You know, as a business owner myself, one of the things that I know is the equity we build with our team members is one of the single most important competencies any leader will ever develop.
The issue’s pretty simple, and I was just thinking about this as we launched this new program. We get caught up don’t we? We get caught up in a very busy world. We get caught up in our day to day and sometimes, even though we may not want to admit it, we can take for granted some of the people that are really, really important to us as it relates to our business success. As I travel and speak all over the world, I can tell you, without fear of contradiction, when I discuss relationship equity I get a little bit of a blank stare from CEO’s, from executives, from people that lead and develop teams.
Here’s where I think the blank stare comes from, is when it hits them, when it hits them and it punches them right square between the eyes when I ask these types of questions. Think of every one of your direct reports. Tell me what their three most important personal goals are? And they realize that they don’t know. Or when I say, “Listen, what’s that one big dream that your direct reports are chasing? And what’s the plan you’ve put together to help them reach their most important goals and dreams? Not your business goals and dreams.” And they realize that they don’t know. Or I say, “Well listen, who is the center of influence in your direct reports life? Who is that person that inspired them, that motivated them? What were the attributes that they really clung to?” Because, if you don’t know my dream, and you don’t know my goal, and you don’t who I have been influenced by, and you don’t know what attributes I’m inspired or motivated by, then how do you lead me? How do you drive me to become a high achiever?
Well here’s the only method you have at your disposal if you haven’t built equity. You get to guess, and if you’re guessing, you’re not getting it right very often. That’s why in many companies you see high turnover, you see low retention of great team members, is there’s no equity that has been established. What are the components to building relationship equity? Well, the first one is that thing we call time. We have 86,400 seconds a day and I would simply suggest to you today, I hope that I’ve got your mind, you know, this is your brain, this is your brain on Paul. My goal is to have you think. Every time you see one of these segments I want you to think, are you taking the time to develop equity with your people? Are you getting away and getting to know them on a deeply personal level? Because, when you make deposits with your team members, you build equity. But if all you’re doing is mandating, instructing, and telling, then your bank account balance is zero. And when you need them, they are not going to be there for you. The first key is time.
The second is you have to genuinely care about the pathway of every one of your team members. You have to be a heat seeking missile that wants to get to know them on a personal level. You have to invest in that individual. If you do that, then you can build real equity. Next, you have to plan. You see, there’s three roles you play. You gotta teach your people, coach your people, and only then can you mentor your people. But you gotta teach them what they need to know to chase down their goals. Remember this, people will do more to reach their goal then they ever will to reach yours. But if you, as Ed Zigler said years ago, if you help enough other people get what they want, you’ll have everything you want.
Once you teach them how to take those steps they need to take to reach their goals, you’re developing an incremental plan of action that will allow this person to grow. Then you’re fostering a relationship when you advise and counsel, through coaching, to help them find daily incremental improvement. Then you can become a mentor and you can help them really and truly become a phenomenal part of your business.
Hey, this has been Paul Cummings, leadership tips that really work. Simple Strategies For A Complex World. Go. Today. Invest in your people and build relationship equity.
Paul Cummings: Well one of my favorite things to do is to share life lessons that I have learned during my 60 years on this earth. You know, my grandfather was my mentor, he’s my teacher, guy named George W. Cummings, Sr. He and I, when I was a young boy, we used to stand by his fence post and he would share information with me that I really didn’t know at the time was gonna impact my world and so many other peoples world.
But I distinctly remember one day him saying this to me that, “Enthusiasm is an inside game with an outside reflection.” Well if you’re in business you know, you absolutely know, without any doubt, that enthusiasm sells. Enthusiasm is a positive messenger to your team and it’s a positive messenger to your customers. People love to do business with people that are enthusiastic about their product, enthusiastic about their service, and enthusiastic about their opportunity.
You know enthusiasm comes from the Greek word enthous, it means spirit within, god like. Let me tell you what it doesn’t mean. It doesn’t mean fake it till you make it. It is not a fake it till you make it business, so I simply ask you today, I want you to think. What are you enthusiastic about? Where you are finding your enthusiasm? And are you reflecting that to your teams, to your customers, and to your family? Enthusiasm is something that, when you have it, you have a competitive advantage, a unique, competitive advantage. Because, when people get to choose, I can pick this company that has enthusiasm, or I can pick this company that doesn’t. I promise you, at the end of the day, today’s consumer, today’s team members, without fail, will always pick enthusiasm.
Paul Cummings: You know what I love, I love the business of sales. I’ll tell you why I do, because sales is an art and it is a science. It has to be studied, and it has to be practiced daily. You know people ask me all the time, “Paul, do I really need to practice?” I always get a chuckle about that and I say, “Well, it depends on whether or not you want to win.” And they go, “But do I need to do it every day?” And I say, “Well, that depends on how often you want to win.”
Here’s my suggestion. Here is my sales tip for this week. I would only practice, if I were you, on the days you want to win. But the bad thing about that is, am I gonna be the customer that shows up on the day you decided not to practice? Am I gonna be the customer that gets the bad experience because today you just chose less, right? You know what a professional does? A professional goes to work on themselves every day. A professional knows that in this world we live in today, there’s always something we can learn, there’s always something we can develop more skill around. There’s always something that we can improve, but we have to do the work.
Three little things about improvement in the business of sales. You practice to learn and then you drill a new technique or approach to perfect it. But then, see most people think you’re through, but you’re not. Then you have to rehearse it over, and over, and over, and over, and over again, and when you really, really, really think you’re good, well, you need to practice, you need to drill, and you need to rehearse. Never forget the art and science of sales will pay you in a big way, but you have to do the work when no one else is watching if you want to get paid when everyone is.
Paul Cummings: One of the things I know is what we affirm we gravitate towards in our life. It’s all about our I will proclamations that we make, the declarations that we make out loud, with energy, belief, and conviction. You know years ago a guy built a company called US Steel and he used to stand in front of the mirror every day and say, “I will be a billionaire, I will be a billionaire, I will be a billionaire.” Yes, some people probably thought he was hokey and some people probably called it weird. But, the difference is he claimed what he wanted, made it a proclamation, and he became a billionaire.
Well here is your weekly affirmation for this week. I will ask high-quality questions every day. You know why that’s so important? The key to the vault of all human creativity is a better question. You can change your life today by using this affirmation.
Hey, thanks for joining us.
