People in business that learn and grow don’t just take notes…they make notes!

A very good senior manager asked my advice the other day on how to win business from key prospects, since he was due to see the prospects in question that day. We discussed the challenge and I offered a brief overview of the main points to cover. He took notes but when he called me later he said that he had been unable to use the approach we discussed, which shocked and worried him, especially as we are soon to immerse his sales team in using the strategies discussed.

So what went wrong? The answer is that the senior manager ‘took notes’ of what we discussed, but he did not have the chance to ‘make notes’ of the issues involved…and so when faced with the prospects he was trapped in ‘no-man’s land’ (which the dictionary describes as being “a state of insecurity”), a position where you possess new information but prefer old ways of doing business. The lesson is that new information cannot be used without new forms of practice…to the point where your preparation sees to it that you can use the new information with confidence and flair. I am writing about this topic because the implications for individuals and managers are significant, to say the least. In the military, when a superior officer gives an order to a junior officer, the officer receiving the information is required to ‘repeat the order’ so that the chance of misinterpretation is removed. In business, when we motivate and educate sales people to behave differently and more positively, we must create circumstances in which the team members have the opportunity to ‘articulate and replicate’ what they have heard. All of this means that we must ensure that sales people ‘realise’ and not just ‘memorise’.

What we must accept, with staff and customers, is that people operate ‘from habits’ more than logic. For example, if you explained the pitfalls of smoking to smokers in a positive manner, there is a good chance that they would agree with you. However, after the meeting it is almost certain that their smoking habit will dictate their behaviour, rather than the common sense you presented to them. Bad habits then are a potential and serious ongoing block to learning and development.

Another key factor concerns the extent to which people are keen, if not almost desperate to improve their conduct and performance. When I was promoted to my first management role, I asked my boss why I had been chosen for the position and he said ‘because you are the hungriest person in the team.’ I raise this ‘angle’ because it is worth remembering this adage: ‘when the student is ready, the teacher is never far away.’ So how do we move team members, or ourselves, to the point where we are avid recipients and users of new information and progressive ideas? In answering this question we must start by accepting that a different approach is needed to learning, one which requires more from team members than just listening and ‘perhaps’ taking notes. If you have ever been impressed with the precision of soldiers when marching or presenting arms, then you will surely accept that aside from being ‘shown what to do’, the soldiers must also have been trained relentlessly in ‘doing’ what they have been taught. The same principle applies to how theatrical performers are ‘directed and choreographed’ to the point of flawless presentation. Inexplicably, most sales people are not taken down this path!

There is a timeless human process that guides us to the point of higher, consistent behaviour, involving 5 classic ingredients: positive thought; positive action; positive habits; positive character, positive destiny. Translated, this means that we must continuously offer quality thoughts to people (staff or customers); then we must move them to the point where they use the thoughts ‘in action’; next, if we can find a way to ensure consistent positive action, then people will develop rarefied routines, or habits; the habits, reinforced, will build character moral fibre…and this ‘backbone’ factor will pave the way to a positive, productive future!