People Still Matter

1
People Still Matter

• The understated and underappreciated importance
  of Leadership

2
People Still Matter

• The talk is about
• Technology
• Branding
• Personal Coaches
• Core Services
• Recruiting

3
People Still Matter

• The talk should be about
• Leadership
• Culture
• Behaviors

4
People Still Matter

• In 2006 REAL Trends set out to
• Determine which firms in the REAL Trends 500 had
  performed consistently the best over the prior
  ten years
• Find out what made these firms the most
  consistently successful firms

5
People Still Matter

• The firms were measured by growth in
  transactions, growth in sales professional
  productivity, growth in Core Services and growth
  in profitability
• There were only 15 that were ranked in the top
  100 firms in each category

6
People Still Matter

• 14-16 interviews were held with sales
  professionals and staff from each of the 15 firms
• They were asked a series of questions,
  unprompted, about what they thought made their
  companies successful

7
Lessons

• We expected to, but did not hear about
• Technology
• Marketing
• Education
• Relocation

8
Lessons

• These were all a given.
• Of the 170 interviews that we held, what we did
  hear was

9
Lessons

• Vision
• Transparency
• Communication
• Accountability
• Empowerment
• Discipline
• Community

10
Vision

• What do we stand for, what do we believe makes us
  special, what do we aspire to become and
  achieve..not in terms of numbers, but in terms
  of our culture and ourselves

11
Transparency

• We share information about our company and its
  people, our results, our market and our
  competition
• We are open with our people about what matters
  and what our goals and objectives are for the
  future

12
Communication

• Both vertical and horizontal communication within
  an organization are imperative for a success
• Regular and impromptu communication via
  in-person, meetings, large groups and small,
  email and birthday cardsall work

13
Accountability

• Successful firms foster a sense of accountability
  to each other, from sales professionals to
  consumers, from staff to sales professionals, all
  are accountable
• For behaviors
• For results

14
Empowerment

• Successful companies allow people to make
  decisions at their level of authority and
  responsibility
• They do not have leaders who accumulate all of
  their decision making in their own hands

15
Empowerment

• Successful companies push authority and
  responsibility (and accountability along with it)
  as low as possible in their organizations
• Empowerment without accountability is called
  Laissez faire leadership (to be avoided)

16
Discipline

• How we do things from the simplest processes to
  how we deal with troubled personnel and angry
  clients and customers is established, practiced
  and reinforced
• we have a definite way things are done here

17
Community

• Among the most surprising findings was how much
  sales professionals and staff develop a sense of
  pride about their companies due to the company
  regularly giving back to the communities in
  which they work and live

18
Community

• Also, through the application of all other
  attributes listed in this report, a sense of
  community is established, reinforced and nurtured
  within the organization

19
Conclusion

• Recognize that your people are with you more for
  these reasons than they are because of your
  technology, your marketing, your brand or your
  nice offices

20
Conclusion

• If you are perceived as caring about the money,
  your people will care about the money
• If you are perceived as caring about them, they
  will tend to care about others.