Top 5 Things To Do

What separates you as a successful leader or as a successful professional from the rest?   Here are my top 5 things that I strive to do to stay focused and to keep challenging myself. 

1.  Follow-up 

By now the Building Circles audience knows my golden rule about the 3 keys to following up:   follow-up, follow-up and follow-up.   The sooner you embrace this and the sooner you make this part of your everyday make-up, the more successful you are going to be.

Are you following up or are you talking about how you follow-up?  Check your list today.  Ask yourself what are you following up on or a better question to ask is what should you be following up on? 

2.  Listen 

Sometimes this is easier said than done.  I'm guilty from time to time for not listening.  Effective listening is a tough and yet important component in communicating with others.  What is the other person actually saying or communicating?   Listen to them closely, pay attention to body language and choice of words.

Stop talking is one way to listen more effectively.  When the other person is talking, most of us are already preparing/thinking about our response.   Wait a moment to let what the other person is saying to sink in first.  Repeat in your own words what the other person said and ask if you understood them.   Then respond with your answer or comment. 

3.  Ask Questions 

This one occasionally gets me into trouble!  I have difficulty answering a question if I do not fully understand it or do not understand why it is being asked.  So I ask a question to clarify.   Some people do not like it when you answer a question with a question.

Ask more questions to show you want to learn and understand what the other person is saying.   Communication works two-ways.  It helps when you ask questions to encourage the other person to share more information.

There are times when it takes three to five questions to get to the root of the situation and fully understand what the other person is trying to tell you. 

4.  Take Responsibility 

Regardless of the situation, who did what and when, take responsibility for yourself, your team, your company and the situation at hand.   Blaming or making up an excuse will quickly result in you losing credibility.

Here is a classic example of being the leader and taking responsibility a few years ago:

We met with a new prospective client for our introductory meeting.  When we handed out our proposal, it was then I noticed there was something wrong.  Our documentation had the incorrect company name on it!!!  It was the name of another company with a similar name as the prospective client.   Oh no!   How would you handle this situation?

I stopped the meeting as soon as I noticed it, called it out in the open and took responsibility for the mistake.   The other person said they liked everything they heard, up to now, paused (to make me sweat a little) and said to keep going.  The other two in the meeting mentioned they noticed the error and did not want to mention it.   My partner with me supported my actions and we had a very interesting discussion on the way back to the office.

Take responsibility.   Leaders stand up, support their team and take responsibility.  It does not matter if I made the mistake or someone on our team did.   Everyone in the meeting knew I did not make the mistake but I actually did by not taking the time to proof-read our proposal which I signed.

We were welcomed to continue the meeting because we demonstrated how we handle challenges, mistakes and tough situations.  

 5.  Just Take Care Of It

I know it sounds too simple and yet it is:   "Just Take Care Of It".   With Leap Day upon us, I always joke the only thing I do not like about a Leap Year is you get one more excuse to use.   There's always an excuse why you cannot do something or finish something or close a sale.

The good news is to tell yourself you can do it and guess what?  Yes you guessed it:   Just Take Care Of It.   Go out and accomplish it.

Sure, you may fail and you may hear no, get doors slammed in your face.  That is part of our journey and part of what builds our character or as some say "gives you thick skin".   Well I have a lot of thick skin.   It's from doing it, right or wrong, just going out and do what you feel is best for everyone.

Learn from your mistakes, learn from the nay-sayers, learn from the negativity and keep plugging along.  Learn from your successes and learn from others who have accomplished good things.  You will amaze yourself at what you can accomplish when you "Just Take Care Of It".  Try it and don't procrastinate or say you cannot.

What are your top things you do to strive for success?

Did you get that?

What I mean by "Did you get that?" is did you get all the details and did you actually understand what was communicated?

We hear the news and share the headlines with our peers.  What amazes me is how the stories are different even when we listen to the exact same report.  Check it out next time and ask someone if they heard the news and what their understanding was.

It is easier to communicate in face-to-face meetings by observing body language.  If the best communication tool you have is the phone, listen closely to the voice, the tone, speed, softness, loudness, emotions and so forth.  Paying attention to these other things will help you better understand what the person is communicating.  

I always enjoy the post-discussion review with others of any meeting, discussion or presentation.  Sometimes I actually feel like I was at a different one.  Yes and occasionally it is me who may check out for a bit or miss some details.  For the most part, I tend to pick up those little details that may not seem important at the time, yet they could make a big difference.

Paying attention, making an association so you remember their name is a good exercise to stay focused.  The same goes with the rest of the communication.  Listen attentively, ask questions, be engaged and take notes.  This is worth repeating: take notes at meetings in person and over the phone.

Summarize the discussion at certain points so everyone has a good understanding of what is being discussed.  Be the first one to e-mail a summary of the meeting minutes with action items.  Everyone in attendance will appreciate it.  You will be seen as someone who understands, cares and who makes a difference.

Nodding our head and going with the flow is the easy way to communicate, yet it may not be the most effective.  Ask questions, take notes and be in the moment to avoid the question "Did you get that?"

The Voice of the Client

When a client communicates their experience with you, your team and your organization, are you hearing their message and really listening?

Sharing good experiences with your company and complimenting your team is great to hear.   What are they actually trying to tell you?   How do you react to the compliment?

Listen to what they are sharing with you.   Understand what sets you and your team apart.   Is it the process, the people, the leader, the relationship, the experience in general or a combination that results in the client paying the compliment.

What if the message is neutral as in yes we had an OK experience with your Team?   How do you respond?   Asking questions to further understand what they liked and did not like and drilling down to understand what their expectations were will help to provide a better experience in the future.  Qualifying, understanding and setting expectations are all critical in setting the stage for continued success.

We dislike the negative and candid feedback.   How do you handle this?   These are the clients that care the most about your organization and are educating you to do better.   You probably do not believe this and kid yourself in saying "this does not happen to us".   That is OK and you can keep telling yourself this while great teams embrace it and take care of their clients.

Listen to the voice of the client.   We have heard the expression "there are three sides to every story:  yours, mine and somewhere between is the truth".  Here is golden nugget for you:  the reality is the perception of the client about their experience with your business and the proof is in the voice of the client.   Be very thankful if and when they communicate to you.   The alternative of not communicating, leaving you and moving on to build a relationship with someone else is not the option you want.

We are very fortunate our clients communicate with our team and we respond in a professional timely manner.   We welcome and embrace the voice of our clientele to solidify our long term relationships and to create new opportunities from their referrals.

The good news is the compliments and positive experiences communicated to us out-weigh the neutral and any negative feedback.   Thank you to all our clients for sharing their voice and to our team for listening and responding to keep on striving for excellence.

What are you hearing when you listen the voice of your client?

Jacob shares his internship experience at AlphaKOR

This week we welcome Guest Blogger Jacob Osborne, student at Villanova High School who shares his experience as an intern at AlphaKOR.

As an intern, you may think of many things when you start at a new location. Will you fit in? Will you get the respect you deserve? Can you do this? I’m here to tell you, yes you will.

As an intern working for AlphaKOR I have been able to experience so many more things than I could just sitting in a classroom. As my final days here at the company countdown I have felt the need to sit here and reflect on what an amazing experience this has been. I have been able to experience a new sort of environment that I had never experienced before while in high school.

So the mindset of an intern when first entering a company, especially if it’s their first company they’ve worked for, can be quite scary. You never know what you’ll experience or what the environment will be. I had many concerns and a scared mindset entering into AlphaKOR as well, but quickly you will learn that there is nothing to fear. As long as you go into your job every day with a positive mindset and a will to work hard and get things done there will be no issue.

I am not a very extroverted person, but interning I feel has helped me get out of my shell a bit. It has forced me to meet new people for different jobs and for social interactions. I have never been very good at meeting new people, but the people here did such an amazing job at making me feel like family that I had almost no issue at all.

AlphaKOR is a very social and open company that allows you to talk to people at the same time as completing work giving you the feeling like you are never alone. So many computer companies have large cubicles blocking out essentially everyone, but in AlphaKOR you just have short glass dividers allowing you to socialize while working on your computer.

When I first arrived here, I had many challenges I had to overcome. I had my social problem along with being in a completely new environment. I also had the challenge of needing to complete work to a very high standard. AlphaKOR never lets anything that’s “just-OK” go through. I needed to be able to work at the high level required so that things I did were acceptable and not just a waste of time. This is one thing that I feel I did quite well and adapted to fairly quickly.

Personally my current experiences at AlphaKOR are amazing. My hope for the future is to go to university and get a degree in computer science. At AlphaKOR I didn’t work in the computer programming department; I worked in the marketing department. I feel even though this isn’t what I’d like to go into, it allowed me to see a larger picture of the company as a whole. Once you join a company if you are just doing programming that’s more than likely all you’ll see, but this way I was able to experience all the other factors that happen within a company.

AlphaKOR has taught me many things and one of them is to never count yourself short. Coming in I felt that since I was only an intern I didn’t necessarily have the knowledge to complete tasks to the same level as others in the company who have degrees, but I quickly learned that through determination and hard work I can complete any task given to me no matter how big or how small.

Overall I feel that my time spent at AlphaKOR was a great success. I had never known what it was like to be at a company and have to complete tasks, or what it was like to be in a real work environment. I feel the experiences I gained and people I have met will carry on with me for many years to come and will help me in getting a job with this sort of environment in the future. Finally I’d like to say thank you to AlphaKOR for giving me an experience I will never forget!

Jacob Osbourne, Guest Blogger

Student at Villanova High School