Habits

Habits and Procrastination

Energy, Flow, Habits, Human Brain, peak Performance, procrastination, Thinking

I have written earlier about the book Tiny Habits by B. J. Fogg PhD. This is one classic book and it eliminates the ideas of doing heroic things to achieve Peak Performance. I have been deeply impressed with the book and the results it has helped me get.

The logic of the book is very simple, yet profound.  Actually most profound things have simple explanations. Here the simple explanation is that if there’s something which requires a lot of ability (also known as hard work for the brain) then chances are, that if motivation is not high, then it won’t happen. So you may have the best intentions, but your brain won’t let you achieve it. This is what I was talking about yesterday .

As I mentioned in my post yesterday, the brain has only 2% of the mass of the body but consumes about 25% of the energy, so its always trying to conserve energy as per Steven Kotter in his book The Art of Impossible.

As per Steven to achieve the impossible one of the key ingredients is motivation. He also looks at the various chemicals like dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin etc., which when layered give the brain the power of feeling good and hence the motivation to perform at peak.

Where I think the intersection takes place is that if you make something into a habit, then the brain does not use so much energy and you don’t procrastinate even for tasks where the motivation is low and the amount of ability needed is high.

On the other hand when your motivation levels are high and you’re at your creative best, you can get into a “flow” state and achieve massive outcomes.

I would think you should read both the books because both can help you grow your abilities to perform at your peak.

Till next time then.

Carpe Diem!!!

Generating “Trust” with the client – simple steps

B2B, Fear, Habits, Sales, Trust

When you are entering a new account as a sales person, “Trust” is by far the most difficult thing for you to get. If the customer has already been using your company’s product or service, then there’s some amount of trust that gets bestowed on you.

Especially if your company has done a good job or the sales person before you has done a good job, then the customer is more favourable to talk with you. However the customer still has to trust “YOU”

On the other hand if the account is new to your company and you as the sales person are also involved in creating the account then it becomes all the more important that you gain trust with the prospect fast. One of the biggest things which hampers a sale is TRUST. Price, quality of the product / service etc. are all issues which come into [play after the person trusts you.

Some of the simplest things I have observed for building trust are simple old fashioned things

  1. Keep your word – if you say you will do something by a given day or time – DO IT
  2. Arrive before the scheduled time always – No one likes to be kept waiting and that too for a sales person – there will be times where things can go wrong inspite of all your planning – in that case inform the customer well in advance
  3. Communicate every step of the way – even if you don’t have a solution ready for the problem – which will happen many times in your career – keep the customer informed that you have a problem and you are working to solve – the customer is also answerable to someone else and if he doesn’t have information he will get more frustrated. The customer may get angry with you for a little while but after he/she vents their anger, they will still be friends. Most of the time the people get scared of the customer and try to hide. This kind of Fear will only create problems in your long term relationships.
  4. Don’t consider your customer as an adversary – Till you get the order, everyone is very nice to the customer. The challenge starts when they become a Customer. The customer has certain expectations and your delivery folks have their own challenges and any objection by the customer becomes a “me versus you” situation. You have to make your team understand , that in B2B situations especially, the customer has more at stake than you because of her reputation at the organisation is at stake. If you can look at it as a joint effort then it solves the problem.

None of these steps have any technology related issues, they don’t need any hi-tech software or equipment etc. These are just human habits and behaviours which you need to cultivate and slowly you will observe people will automatically gravitate towards you and start trusting you.

Till next time then.

Carpe Diem!!!

80/20 to improve on your weaknesses

Habits, Leverage, prioritizing

Its always better to focus on your strengths rather than wasting time on your weaknesses.  If over a period of time you eliminate all the activities except where you are excellent,  you can have an amazing life.

Now the above is something which I would work towards as my ultimate objective.  However there are times when you need to work with some of the weaknesses also because of business reasons.

I was never knowledgeable about legal terms of a contract.  But after I  came into my present role, I had to discuss on legal parts of a contract. Before this, legal language was absolutely Greek to me.

While marketing and sales is my forte, I had to build some capabilities on legal language. So I  identified some 20% items which were always a bone of contention in any legal contract.  So I  would just check  on those first and the other side was immediately engaged.

The other place where I am not strong is spreadsheets- initially when I  was stuck with studying business plans on excel sheets, I was all over the place trying to understand what was going on. Now I have identified a few key things which help me navigate the sheet and ask the right questions to my finance team.

With this I am able to achieve 80% of the tasks in any excel spreadsheet with ease. Its what I call small hinges moving larges doors.

Till next time….don’t waste your time in trying to strengthen your weaknesses. Identify the 20% that can meet 80% of the requirements.

Carpe Diem!!!

Gap and Gain – Part 2

Habits, Happiness, mindset, self esteem

Continuing on this concept that I started of on yesterday, Dan Sullivan has a very nice method which I have gathered from his books and videos.

He talks of looking back 25 years. Assuming you are more than 40 years of age. Then checking out where you were 25 years back and where you are today. Chances are that you have come a long way in terms of your earnings, your experience.

Based on that he says that in the short term there could have been challenging times ever so often, but in the long term you would have generally made it with a lot of achievements to be proud of.

Once you remember those moments, then it becomes easier to come out of a “down” state and look at the future with hope.

I have shared multiple tactics over the years when I feel. One of them is to see how far I have come from 25 years back. It changes my complete mindset and makes me happy.

When I look at things that way, I do notice that I have actually achieved quite a bit for myself. Comparing the 25 year younger me with the present me actually makes me eel quite happy.

Try this for yourself whenever you’re in the self pity mode.

Till next time then.

Carpe Diem!!!