We are proud to announce our partnership with B1G1.  This is our first official charitable organization going into the new year.

• B1G1 moves giving from an ad-hoc, event-driven model to a very specific transaction-based giving model — a world where every transaction gives back and makes a difference.
• It means that giving becomes an effortless habit, changing our lives and making a difference every second, every day and in every way.
• B1G1 brings the power, resonance and ‘connected-ness’ of transaction-based giving and Impact-Based Giving to the literal hundreds of thousands of small-to-medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) that form the backbone of every economy.

Please check out there site at www.b1g1.com and donate as appropriate through our web link.

http://www.b1g1.com/buy1give1/businessstory?companyID=100149

More to come in 2012….

Y’vonne Ormond

Director, Smart Mentoring

All -

Thank you all for your patience in allowing the Smart Leaders Program team the time to set up the Global Mentorship Program Pilot.  We’ve now come to the place where we’d like to engage all of you that showed interest in being a Mentor, Mentee or both.

Thank you Kristin for this week’s blog and sharing your experience with our community.

Y’vonne Ormond

Director, Smart Mentoring

Transform your business in five words 

Want to transform your business? Read on. I’m about to show you five critical, oft overlooked words that really can transform your business – but only if you really commit to them. So, what are they?

What’s…In…It…For…Me?  or WIIFM. These five words are your key to more and better business. Believe it or not these are the most important five words for your customers, no matter what it is you’re selling.

First though, think back to when someone has attempted to sell you something and you sat there thinking “they just don’t get what I need.”  Even if you were initially interested, all that talk about themselves, their product or service and how great it or they were, was just, well, dull. Once you were bored all you wanted to do was excuse yourself and get out of there. It might have been different if they’d been a little more interested in your needs, but they weren’t. They lost you and you’re unlikely to give them a second chance. Compare that with the last thing you bought, lock stock and barrel.

What was the difference? You were.

So many organisations put themselves first – it’s all about them, not their customer. How many presentations or brochures have you seen that are all about ‘them’. ‘They’ are boring – you want to hear about you. You want them to talk to you, about you and your needs. Sure it’s important their information tell you something about ‘it or them’, it has to be couched around your needs.

Well, I hate to be blunt, but what if that’s what the last 2, 3 or 10 prospects thought when you spoke to them? They smiled politely, promised to get back to you, but you still haven’t heard from them. Maybe you sent our your new brochure, launched your new website, put on an expo, full of great products and ideas, but the phone’s just not ringing and people aren’t taking your calls.

Perhaps there was more in your brochure for you rather than them. I know, your product or service works a treat, but what does it do… FOR THEM? Actually, before you’re too hard on yourself, it can be quite hard to be objective about your product or service enough to take yourself out of it. But, if you’re to succeed in your quest for more or better business, you must.

Let’s look at the seven steps for getting to WIIFM

1. Take a hard look at your materials (presentations, brochures, website) – through the eyes of your customer. Who does it really talk about them or you? How many times do you use the word you and your  vs the number of times you use we, our, my, etc.
2. Have someone not connected with your business (or industry) tell you what your product or service delivers and why that’s important – (this is where external consultants can really help)
3. For every claim you make about your product/service (fast, cost-efficient, one of a kind) ask yourself “So what? Why is that important to my customer?” You should come up with reasons like (and these aren’t necessarily the right answers for you)
   • fast – gives your customers more time with to spend with their family or on their boat,
   • cost-efficient – because they’ll have more to money spend doing the things they love; or
   • one of a kind – they’re the envy of their friends.
4. Use emotions!! Paint pictures using those emotions. Don’t kid yourself that B2B buyers don’t buy on emotion. They do – it’s just a different kind of emotion. They want to succeed, have a bigger staff, be the one who saved the company all that money, get that promotion, or just have less stress or more time with their family, boat, doing the things they love, rather than pfaffing around over a piece of equipment, technology, staff member who’s not performing as promised.
5. Once you know what you really deliver your customers – try it on a couple of your best customers. Ask their thoughts and really listen – people love giving their opinion and they’ll love you even more for asking.
6. Once you’re clear on your message, use the same words and emotions in your brochures, sales calls, website, etc. Tailor it slightly for each customer – not everyone will have a boat (or a family). Find out what’s important to them and refer back to it from time to time.
7. When you write or produce something or plan a presentation, make sure your customer is at the heart of it – every time.

Think about why your customer is talking to you, reading your materials or visiting your site. What are they hoping is in it for them? All you have to do to transform your business is to make them feel they’re the most important thing in your world and then deliver your stuff.

If you liked Kristin’s article and would like to talk to her further, she can be reached at kristinlaustin@gmail.com.

This post is the first in our guest bloggers series.  It comes to you from one of our Program Volunteers Glenn Turner.

Top 5 reasons to utilize a Business Coach

Executive coaching is being utilized by business leaders and professionals to achieve improved results. The choice to utilize executive coaching services is often influenced by answering the following question. What is in it for me? There are numerous benefits but as the title of this blog states here are the TOP 5 in no specific order:

1. Increased revenues and productivity. People look to executive coaches to achieve improved business results. A focus of the coaching process must be given to organizational or professional goals. The ability to spend at least three to six months with a client will allow time to be spent creating and implementing goals and action steps designed to bring about an increase in revenues and productivity. Numerous articles have been written documenting the positive results achieved in this area. http://www.managementconsultingnews.com/articles/battley_coaching_roi.php
2. Goal directed focus. Coaching is not therapy. Your past is only relevant as it affects your ability to achieve future goals. The ability to set organizational and professional goals in a meaningful and productive manner. Success will look different to individuals within the same organization. A focus on overall organizational goals as well as meaningful goals for the professional development of the person being coached allows for a true win/win situation.
3. Ability to understand and utilize the core strengths each person has in an effective and efficient manner. Highly successful people realize what their core strengths are and learn to utilize them more frequently. Many people will refer to this as being authentic. Imagine being able to engage in the types of activities that you truly enjoy more often. What would this mean to your results?
4. Understanding that attitudes are something that each of us controls. Ideally, creating more positive attitudes allows us to look at possibilities instead of problems. The best news is that we can learn to develop more positive attitudes. Think of a highly successful person in business, sports, entertainment, and politics or in a spiritual setting. Virtually all of them are positive minded people.
5. Overcoming obstacles to change. Change can be a stressful and difficult process. The ability to understand change and look at it as an opportunity for improvement is crucial for business sustainability. A leader must not only understand how to manage change for him/herself but also for other members of the organization.

Glenn Turner is a member of our Human Resource Team. and additionally is the President of LDG Consulting Inc., which provides professional value oriented facilitation services through a series of processes designed to improve communications, leadership, management and executive management skills.  If you liked Glenn’s article and would like to talk to him further, he can be reached at glenn@resultswithldg.com.

Are you like me that you prepare your To Do list? For some people, to-do lists are life savers; they keep them organized and on task. For others, they’re useless pieces of paper to ignore as they grow longer and longer. Next time you sit down to write a to-do list (or decide to face up to an existing one), follow these tips:

Break it down.
To-dos are not the same as goals or projects. Only include specific tasks that move a project toward completion. If a to-do list item is too large to get done in one step, break it down further. Include specifics.

Include Details.
Help your future self out by including details that will make doing the task easier. Instead of “Get in touch with Julie,” try “Call Julie about next task force meeting at 123-4567.”

Prioritise.
Not all To Do tasks were created equal. Some may be more urgent than others. Make sure that you do not spend your time on those which are ease but less urgent. Rather concentrate on those which are urgent or important. Allocate sufficient time to complete them.

- This post was based on HBR Tip of the day.

Hi SLN Members –

I wanted to follow up Barbara’s announcement last month (March 22nd) about the Mentorship Program with further information for all of you to keep your interest.

First off Barbara has asked me to take on the role of Director of Smart Mentoring . I’m very excited to be leading the Mentor/Mentee program of work and have the opportunity to work with many of you.

To expand on Barbara’s original high level strategy, I’ve been working on a program plan with the next level of detail. The program plan consists of mapping the high level strategy to an operating working model along with organizational work streams, deliverables, timelines, and communications mechanisms.

I’ll be kicking off the Pilot Mentorship Program June 1st. To gain early interest I’m sharing details as Barbara and I are in the planning phase.

2011 “Pilot” Mentoring Program Activities:

• Strategic planning & Program Setup (April/May)
• Recruit Volunteers (April-December; Ongoing)
• Kick off “Pilot” Program (June 1st)
• Create reference materials, guidelines and coaching strategies (June 15 – August 15)
• Design website & DB (data & metrics) (June 15 – August 30)
• Identify and adopt charity campaigns (June 15 – August 30)
• Mentor/Mentee matches assigned (August 20)
• Run the “Pilot” (September 1 – December 31)
• Pilot Lessons Learned (September 1 – December 31)
• Kick off “Live” Chargeable Mentorship Program (January 2012)

In the next few weeks I’ll be working further on the operating and organizational model. As of today we’ll need subject area experts to lead the following functional areas.

Marketing – External marketing materials, coaching guidelines, tools, social media, newsletters, webinar recruitment and more

Operations – Website and DB management, lessons learned, knowledge base, metrics and continuous improvement and more

Human Resources – Coaching strategies, people goals, mentor & mentee matches, developmental tools and more

Strategic Philanthropy – Media campaigns, global outreach program, host workshops with community interest groups and more

Charitable Programs – Selection, setup and measurement inclusive of success criteria in partnership with Strategic Philanthropy team. Recruit sponsors for SLN and more

If you interested or would like to know more details behind the functional areas please send me a message via LinkedIn or yvonne@smartleadersnetwork.com and please include your email address so I can follow up with you.

I came accross this list and knew that is should be shared with Smart Leaders Network.
Simple? Yes. Timeless? Yes. Relevant? Yes again!     

1. Compete to win but respect the enemy. Forget all the politically correct BS – business is about winning. And yes, it is a zero-sum game. It’s all about market share. But that doesn’t mean you can’t or shouldn’t respect your competitors.
2. Success is about managing and mentoring people. The way chefs move up is by hiring talented cooks and training them to be sous chefs so they can someday run one of their many restaurants. It’s the same as climbing the corporate ladder.
3. Results are all that matter. It’s what the customer thinks of the product and service that counts. That’s what creates repeat business and loyal customers. You may think you’ve come up with a brilliant dish, but if the folks don’t like it, you failed.
4. You’ve got to know the business. Steve Jobs isn’t just a brilliant marketer. Warren Buffet isn’t just a smart investor. Bill Gates wasn’t just a great software coder. Just like these iconic leaders, every great chef has a head for the business.
5. It’s not who you know but what you know. Don’t let anyone tell you success is about who you know. That’s just an excuse for whiners who can’t cut it. Great chefs know everything there is to know about making a restaurant business successful. Period.
6. Experience is overrated. Even young chefs like Sanchez and Bobby Flay – when he was first starting out – exude such instincts and passion for what they do that you know in a heartbeat they’re going to be successful. That’s why people follow them.
7. Learn from failure and move on. Failure is how we learn and grow. Failure teaches us how to do things differently. How to do things better. Great chefs don’t dwell on their mistakes. They suck it up and do better next time. After all, there’s always another meal.
8. Focus on core strengths. Great chefs grow their business around their core strengths. For Flay it’s southwestern. Paul Prudhomme is a Cajun master. You can probably guess Mario Batali’s specialty. There are lots of ways to diversify without going too far afield.
9. Smarts matter. Nobody has ever been successful in the restaurant or cooking business by just doing the same stuff as everyone else. Sure, execution is critical, but innovation and creativity are also requirements for success. Like it or not, smarts matter.
10. Work hard, play hard. Even while competing at an extraordinarily high level, these chefs never lose their sense of humor and, when it’s over, they party and congratulate each other on a job well done. That’s how it should be.

This list is part of article by Steve Tobak.

Mentors and mentees will meet through the SLN Coaching and Mentoring Program. Places will be limited. Both mentors and mentee will be able to utilize SLN web page resources. It will guide them through the process but also allow freedom to explore areas of interest. At this stage I can see that this will cover following areas:

* Business
* Leadership (including Leadership for Women)
* Executive coaching
* Strategies for success
* Tools and Techniques

If you would like to help to set this up I would be very grateful. We can make a big impact and utilize unlimited knowledge and potential of the SLN group. We can change members lives by helping them succeed. Ideally I’d like us to start it in the second half of 2011.

Post here to express your interest to be Mentor, Mentee or Volunteer helping with this program