Managers to leaders-21 ways to make the transition

My profession as a keynote speaker takes me to several corporate gatherings every year. This gives me a deeper glimpse at the very fabric of organizational co-ordinance between managers and people. Great organizations know that the internal growth of the organization is in the development of its leaders at all levels, but the irony is that organizations develop managers to step into the shoes of leaders. Those shoes do not fit well, because managers are quite different from leaders.

A lot of people think the words manager and leader are interchangeable.  They are not.  Leaders manage, but managers do not always lead.  In fact, most times managers are not leaders.  First of all leaders do not hate their job while some managers do. In the worst case scenario, some managers do not feel they belong to their organization.

The difference between being a manager and being a leader is quite simple. Management is a career and leadership is a calling. A person becomes a manager by virtue of his position. A person becomes a leader on basis of his personal qualities. Leadership is a vocation. In management people have to follow you because they have to, but in leadership people follow you because they love to. John C Maxwell has said it well “It’s not the position that makes the leader, it’s the leader that makes the position”

Let’s first define the differences between leadership and management. I think that Warren Bennis, an author and leadership expert, best articulated the distinctions that can be made between the two: “The manager administers; the leader innovates. The manager has a short-range view; the leader has a long-range perspective. The manager asks how and when; the leader asks what and why. The manager has his eye on the bottom line; the leader has his eye on the horizon. The manager accepts the status quo; the leader challenges it.”

If you look back in the leadership studies back in till about 1995, most leadership books that are written were really about management. There was no clear distinction made or a close dichotomy between leadership and management. Both belonged to the same page.  A good manger was expected to perform like a great leader.  But many things have changed in the world of management, shareholder ownership; leadership positions, participative management and management structures are reconstructed and revised from time to time.

Today, managers go through leadership development. They are called to be leaders. In fact you can’t manage people but you can manage things and situations. You must lead people. People management is not about control. It is about direction. It is not about monitoring performance but enhancing it.

It is very apt to distinguish that manager’s do things right and leaders do the right thing. Managers do things right. Managing is about maintaining systems, processes and procedures. Management is about managing the work environment and controlling those workplace elements that we can control, measure and monitor. Leaders on the other hand do the right things. Leadership is about influence; dealing with those things those we can’t control- things like people. Leaders understand that leadership is about getting people to do those things that you require them to do, when they are not obligated to do it. It is not about telling people what to do, using a ‘tell them’ approach but it is about asking people what need to be done (ask them approach). People want to be wanted and asked rather than told what to do.

Bottom-line, when we examine the overall scope of the leadership position, we see that great managers maintain corporate direction while great leaders change it. Both roles are very different.

It is not so easy to teach managers to become leaders. It is as difficult as teaching old dogs new tricks. But if you can teach managers the clear distinction between management and leadership, they will see not only the gap, but aspire to make a transition as well.

My quest to developing great leaders in the organizations I work with, led me to developing some leadership strategies that can make the transition among mangers to become great leaders. My new book on leadership development, the second on my innings after ‘High performance leadership’ is titled as ‘Managers to leaders’- 21 ways to leadership transitions.

In my book, I discus about 21 ways to make the leadership transitions. Here is the brief peak into the fundamentals.

1. Managers execute decisions and leaders make decisions.

Managers execute directions and leaders set new directions. Leaders decide on the set of the sail and mangers chart the details.

The transition must be about how managers can develop their decision making skills based on the context they operate and make decisions right and prompt and become responsible for the consequences of the decisions they make.

2 .Leaders lead people and managers manage work and supervise workforce.

Leading people and supervising them are different. Managers measure performance, monitor activities and manage situations with people while leaders direct them, give them a dream and a vision to live up to. The transition is about empowering people. As a leader, you help them design the outcome; you equip them to achieve the outcome by teaching them skills. Here you not only say what has to be done, but you equip people how it can be achieved as well.

3. Managers maintain the status-quo and leaders shake up and challenge the status-quo.

Managers follow rules and leaders break the old rules. Leaders take new path and managers use the existing road. Leaders have the courage to let go of the familiar and embrace the unfamiliar. Leaders set the pace and mangers keep the momentum. Here the major transition for a manager is to embrace the unfamiliar and do the uncomfortable and break away from the comfort zone.

Leaders constitute change and mangers constitute stability. Managers expect certainty and order and leaders envision uncertainty and bring order amidst chaos. Management is a codification of conduct, practices and rules but leadership is about values and beliefs and how they serve in any business environment.

4. Managers are after standardization while leaders are into innovation.

Leadership is about innovating and initiating new thoughts. Management is about copying, about managing the status quo. Leadership is creative, adaptive, and agile. Leadership looks at the horizon, not just the bottom line.

Managers follow a school of thought and leaders are thought leaders. Leaders seek the truth and managers try to establish one. The manager administers while the leader innovates. Here, the transition for a manager is to think differently and innovate solutions with the support of the people they lead.

5. Managers play safe and leaders take risks.

Leaders take on risk and managers minimize the risk. People play safe only in the comfort zone. Growth is about expanding the comfort zone. Goals exist outside the comfort zone and growth in any field is an uncomfortable process of doing the unfamiliar. Leaders take on the risk. They embrace the unknown. They are courageous. The transition for any manager in this aspect is to take responsibility for own decisions and the willingness to plunge into the unfamiliar, trying new things and leap into the unknown with total confidence in the self and others. Leaders have a sense of destiny. Great leaders know that even if they fail several times they will succeed eventually.

6. Managers motivate people with incentives and leaders inspire them with purpose.

When managers try the old method of motivating their subordinates with carrot and stick, leaders inspire their followers with purpose by instilling a sense of direction and mission in their life. The transition for a manager is to trigger the ‘why’ in everything they do.  When people know the ‘why’ behind what they do, they are more engaged in their work. The ‘why’ behind what we do really motivates us. It makes us purpose driven.

7. Leaders are the heart and managers are the brains of an organization.

Leaders appeal to the heart and mangers appeal to the head. Management is about presenting facts and leadership is about presenting feelings. Management is intellectual and leadership is emotional.

Leaders are the heart of a business. The essence of leadership means inspiring a group to come together for a common goal. Leaders motivate, console and work with people to keep them bonded and eager to move forward. That means setting a direction, communicating it to everyone in the organization.

Managers on the other hand, are the brains of a business. They establish systems, create rules and operating procedures, and put into place incentive programs and best practices. Leadership empowers people. To make the leadership transition managers must go beyond short term goals and become active participants in the design of the overall vision of the organization. Leaders set direction with a vision, a mission and operating principles that embody the company’s direction and values.

8. Managers have ‘activity’ orientation and leaders have ‘outcome’ orientation.

Activity and outcome are different as tasks and results are different. Several activities eventually enhance in the completion of outcome. Leaders are focused on the result. They want the outcome and activity is only a means to achieve an outcome. Managers are trapped in the ‘activity trap’ of doing routine things. They do things that were told to do. They delegate the same what they were asked to do, but leader’s eyes are always on the prize. Only outcome matters and leaders know that there many ways to achieve an outcome. They think, strategize and re-strategize their activities and they continue to do so, till an outcome is achieved.

9. Leaders have followers and mangers have subordinates.

Managers are leadership by the title and leaders have no title. Managers have a position of authority vested in them by the company, and their subordinates work for them and largely do as they are told. Management style is transactional, in that the manager tells the subordinate what to do, and the subordinate does this not because they are a blind robot, but because they have been promised a reward (salary or wage) for doing so.

Leaders do not have subordinates – at least not when they are leading. Many organizational leaders do have subordinates, but only because they are also managers. But when they want to lead, they have to give up formal authoritarian control and transactional leadership, because to lead is to have followers, and following is always a voluntary activity. Leadership is transformational. To make the transition happen, managers must strive to be transformational and cease to be transactional while dealing with their support system.

10.  Managers have short time goal and leaders have long term vision.

Leaders are visionary, inspirational and have an eye to the future. Managers are operational, hands on, and based in the ‘now’

Management is about attaining short term goals and leadership is about achieving long term vision. Leading is concerned with future direction and managing is about managing current conditions, implementing plans, sustain order and improve efficiency. A leader is someone who has the capacity to create a compelling vision that takes people to a new place, and to translate that vision into action. Leaders draw other people to them by enrolling them in their vision.

11. Mangers are technicians with few management skill sets and leaders have multiple skill sets.

Managers are technicians with a leadership position. To become true leaders they must assimilate other skill sets like more life skills, executive skills, and conceptual skills. Conceptual skills make you an original thinker, a strategist, visionary and a creative problem solver.

12. Leaders give credit and managers take credit for the work.

Leadership is about giving credits. Leaders enjoy helping others to meet their need for recognition and reward. Leaders develop people. When things go wrong they take personal responsibility for that outcome as their leader. Managers blame others while leaders assume 100% responsibility for everything that they are a part of.

13. Management is about processes and leadership is about people.

When a manager makes the shift from process to people and outcome, they become leaders.

14. Management is about problem solving leadership is about possibility thinking.

Leaders are possibility thinkers. They think about what is possible. They think outside the box. They are the blue sky thinkers. They ask questions like ‘what if?’’ why not?’ and ‘how can I?’. These are the magical formulas of possibility thinking.

15. Management is about doing things right and leadership is about doing the right things.

When managers do the right thing, pro actively, without being told, voluntarily, knowing what is right and taking the courage to do it, they act like leaders.

16. Managers light a fire under people and leaders spark the fire in people.

Lighting a fire under people and putting pressure on them is different from inspiring others to act. Leaders light up the fire, they help them fan the fire. Leaders help people to aspire for more. They bring out the best in oneself and others.

17. Managers are into organizing and staffing and leaders align people for a purpose.

Leaders align people under a common shared vision. They bind the people together under common beliefs and values. They unite their people and transform them into a powerful force aligned to achieve a common outcome. Managers see people as departments and divisions of labor but leaders see them as a reflection of oneself striving to succeed and contribute.

18. Leadership is strategic and management is operational.

Managers operate under certain protocols while leaders reinvent all operations. Leaders generate ideas. Remember, they are conceptual thinkers. They invent strategies. When managers begin to give constructive suggestions and ideas for organizational improvement, they are stepping into the shoes of a leader. Often times, managers won’t be heard and they get discouraged, but the real success is in persuading their ideas and making it work with constant perseverance. Great ideas stimulate powerful strategies. Leaders are readers. Managers must know that knowledge is power and consistent learning will accentuate that power. The knowledge is power and the best way to be powerful is to be knowledgeable. But power is only potential power. The real power is when you take action on what you know. Sharing the knowledge and implementing strategies manifest that power. Sharing information is a sign of true leadership and concealing them from followers as an act of manipulation makes a bad leader.

19. Managing is about efficiency. Leading is about effectiveness.

Managing is about how. Leading is about ‘what’ and ‘why.’ Management is about systems, controls, procedures, policies, and structure. Leadership is about influencing people, motivating them and aligning them under one direction.

20. Managers exercise power with authority and leaders exercise power with humility.

One of the major impediments to success in this area of leadership and management is the “pride factor”. Too often managers let their own pride get in the way of providing recognition and sharing or directing credit to others. But sharing credit for a job well done and directing credit to others represents a hallmark of the best leaders. When managers shift from positions and powers to responsibilities and service to their followers, the real shift emerges as they focus on people rather than their egos. When leadership is exercised with humility in the spirit of service, a leader is not only setting an example but he creates an atmosphere of respect and honor among people.

21. Management is professional and leadership is personal.

Managers operate under duties, responsibilities and power structure within a corporation. Leadership operates under the virtue of ‘personhood’ for the ideals one stand for and the value they uphold. Great leaders focus on people development. They build and live great ideals. They share the passion. They enhance the growth of their people. Great leaders are self less. They give from their heart. They stand by their people in good times and bad times. They are committed. They have the peak vision. They aspire people to do more and achieve more.

Managers can make the leadership transitions when they change their focus to personal development and people development. Personal development is essential to discover and embrace one’s own strength and to develop the ability to spot and nurture strengths in other people as well.  Managers must rise above their egos to let go of the pride in the position that is given to them. They must become a coach than a critic. They must let go cynicism in people and must learn to value others highly.

We can make that transition in every organization and we can build leaders at all levels.  As a professional keynote speaker (Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad) and thought leader, I help organizations to make that shift in India and abroad (Motivational Keynote speaker in Singapore,Dubai, Kuala Lumpur, Colombo, Manila, Hong Kong). Contact 09902815613 to deliver a customized leadership keynotes in your organization.

“A single conversation across a table from a wise mentor is worth a months study of books.”

Do you want to accelerate your growth, reduce the learning curve, improve your performance and get a push every time you cease to take action or when you tend to procrastinate; then find a person who can guide you and mentor you?

Welcome to the world of improved productivity and performance through expert mentoring. World class organizations and companies that aspires to be one has already realised the importance of mentoring and many are embracing this idea as a unique tool to excel in their chosen field. Now you too can adapt this as a strategy in your organization and take your business to greater heights.

Who is a mentor?

A mentor is a reliable and trusted friend, a wise counselor, or teacher whose knowledge and experience in a given field render him well suited for the role of a guide.

A mentor is someone who guides and stimulates an individual’s reflection and actions for improved personal and professional outcomes. A Mentor will provide his/her vast experience and knowledge and he/she is willing and available to share this information with another individual. Therefore a  mentee will seek another person’s experience, knowledge and skills in a specific area to make himself competent and result oriented. Mentoring is a trusted learning process. It can be transformational and inspiring to both the parties. But remember a mentor is not someone to lean on, but someone to learn from.

What is mentoring?

Mentoring is a two way process of communication and relationship between a mentor and mentee. Mentoring may be on a regular basis or a one-time basis. It can be done face-to face or it can be done remotely e.g., via the internet (E-mentoring via skype) or by telephone.

Mentors are not merely advisors; they listen actively and prescribe various options. A great mentor shares experience and foresight to explore various options for the mentee. Discovering multiple options become a solution seeking method when a mentee feels road blocks. Questioning and listening are the mentor’s major modus operandi when it comes to offering their expertise. “Have you considered…?” and ” What do you think about this…” are typical ways of introducing mentoring methods.

How to mentor?

Mentoring is done on confidential grounds in an open and mutually trusting environment. Good mentoring develops the mentee’s skills. Mentoring is a stretching process for a mentee.  Stretching happens when a mentee is willing to expand one’s own horizon and ready to act own one’s own potential.  A good mentor helps the mentee to break away from their comfort zones. Growth is an expansion of comfort zone. Therefore a mentor will challenge the mentee to get uncomfortable and grow in the learning path and at the same time supports them to gain skills necessary to achieve their challenging goals.

Good mentoring leads to action: if mentoring is to be purposeful and effective for the mentee, it must surely not only define actions desirable but actually entail their execution. The mentee must not only know what to do and how to do it but be motivated (why) to do so.

Moreover a mentor can point out hidden opportunities to the mentee. They can show the pathways, support the plan and, when needed, provide a reality check. They can also enable connections that build networks, access information and stimulate sound decisions.

Introduce ‘Mentoring’ in your workplace:

Mentoring is about building relationships in the workplace.  It is also an effective way of transferring knowledge and skills. Companies employ mentoring as a solution for ‘personalised training’, ‘skill building’, improvement of ‘workplace productivity’, ‘building morale’, fostering of ‘team work’ and ‘leadership and management development’.

Mentoring programs offer companies an efficient and economical way to manage and develop human assets. Mentors can give high potential employees an extra push or inefficient employees some needed discipline. A mentor can transform an average employee into an exceptional leader. A mentor can even improve the production levels of low-performers. Bottom line mentors can guide decisions about workplace issues, personal goals and ongoing professional development.

Mentoring, when well designed, properly implemented and adequately resourced can:

1. Attract and retain talented employees;

2. Develop people – those who mentor as well as those mentored;

3. Facilitate career planning and progression;

4. Increase the return on your investment in learning and development and reduce turnover costs.

5. Mentoring allows the transmission of knowledge, skills and experience, in a supportive and safe environment.

It’s not only the mentees who benefits from mentoring but also mentors get a real sense of satisfaction from their contribution as well.

One of the greatest challenges for professionals is asking for specific help. Once you have a mentor at your workplace, you can use your mentor’s expertise to improve upon your skills. A Mentor is always approachable. The level of comfort with seniors in the organization makes the workplace free from politics. Very often, Mentors and mentees remain close friends, and mentoring continues informally, as needed.

If your organization is going through changes right now including a major downsizing due to the economic environment, now is the time to initiate a Mentoring Process.

There are different types of mentoring relationships in the work place, ranging from upwards (with your manager or boss), peer to peer, cross functional and most commonly downwards (experienced and a novice). Peer mentoring is increasingly common in organizations. This is a way to ensure that successful knowledge transfer and succession is ensured  with less-experienced workers.

Mentoring is a great way to boost morale in the work place.

People don’t leave jobs, they leave environments that don’t support and satisfy them. Abraham Maslow identified that once basic survival needs are met, people seek a sense of belonging. Effective mentoring caters to that need. By establishing a relationship, both parties feel connected, engaged professionally and personally valued. Work place mentoring is also a great way to boost each other’s self-esteem.

Introduce a mentoring program in your company today and see the transformation in the work culture, camaraderie and co-operation between teams and management.

Paul Robinson’s mentorship services:

“Mentoring is a brain to pick, an ear to listen, and a push in the right direction.” -John Crosby

Aspiring entrepreneurs, successful business people, those just starting out, and everyone who wants to be a successful and career confident person can benefit from having a mentor.

If you are looking at building a great career, develop skills and talents, overcome weaknesses, solve problems and attain certain goals, you can turn to the mentorship services provided by Paul Robinson. Mentoring is done face to face, through telephone, electronically using emails and ‘Skype’ and it is done for duration of ten months.

Mentoring is not for everyone. Before someone embarks on mentoring, they should be quite clear about being accountable for their own development. Consider the Chinese proverb: ‘When the student is ready, the teacher shall appear.’ So it just makes sense that the student must first know what he or she is looking for in a mentor.

If you are clear that your development need requires the personalised approach, then you must consider mentoring today.

Paul Robinson’s Mentoring Program is the answer to micro consulting (consulting at a smaller level). The mentorship program is designed to help each person to fully understand where they are now, where they want to go, and how to achieve it in the best way possible. It also provides a highly confidential way to share and explore problems, difficulties and strategies whether it is personal, professional or business related. Remember better results need wiser decisions.

If you are mentor worthy, you can request for a paid mentorship program from Paul Robinson. For details, call Bangalore 09902815613, 09620547115

Innovation is increasingly becoming the heart of enterprise today

Today, innovation is absorbed into every fabric of an enterprise. The CIOs are the ‘innovation officers’ and leadership has assumed a new role of applying innovation to drive profit and growth. Decisions are turned into ‘best innovative options’, and corporate strategies are discussed as ‘market leadership through innovation’.

Bottom-line, this decade of enterprise will be about ‘innovation’ and executing ‘change.’ Now, the most important factor here is to understand innovation and determine what kind of innovation can be adapted into your business. To understand this concept and to absorb its ideals, you must first learn to understand different types of innovation.

I have come to realize that there are four types of innovation and my classifications are:

1. Open space innovation (AKA Disruptive Innovation)

This is the ‘creative destruction model’ where you can make a contemporary business, product, service or system can go completely obsolete by introducing something that is ‘out of the box’ and out of the world. This is the highest form of innovation where candles are replaced by electric bulbs, or walkmans are replaced by digital music ipods etc.

2. Competitive innovation (AKA Incremental innovation)

This is when you ‘innovate’ on a product or service that is better than the competition. This is achieved by adding value, reducing cost and thus its price, offering something better than the rest of the pack. This can also be achieved by ‘convergence’ and ‘divergence’ practices by clearly defining a new market or niche for your products or services. When you add more RAM and GB to your PC and sell it at a lower price, you are innovating but the risk is how long this kind of value added innovation can really last? On the downside this kind of innovation can become a short term cosmetic affair, but if you can establish a niche for your product and services, you can also reign in this market.

3. Breakthrough Innovation

Breakthrough happens when you turn a problem into a solution or an adversity into an   advantage.

Examples of breakthrough innovations are when Radi Kaiof invented REWALK because he no longer wanted to be stuck to a wheel chair and wanted to walk with motorized leg supports. It is a breakthrough innovation, because he really wanted to breakthrough from his challenges and problems. Many great innovations are born out of desperation, breaking through personal challenges of a breakthrough innovator, but later they all become a great boon to the humanity.

4. Customer Centric Innovation.

This is the practice of connecting with your audience, especially your customers and developing solutions together. This can also means ‘co-creation’ because you are co-creating solutions for your customer with your customer. Customer Centric innovation is also about identifying a need in the marketplace and filling that need with an innovative solution.

Bottom-line you can adapt different types of innovation practices into your business and there are many ways to achieve this objective. The real key is – executing innovation as a practice and culture in your organization. During my intensive study and consulting I have developed some innovative tools to achieve innovation outcome to organizations of any size and challenge.

I will be talking about some of them during my keynote on ‘The art of creativity and innovation’ at the ICCA 2012 summit at Pondicherry, on 30th January 2012.

Click below to know more.

 
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The world of selling is going through major changes. Today customers havenumerous options to choose from a highly competitive market.  People close the doors to the pushy sales person. The aggressiveness and being ‘pushy’ is discouraged. ‘Go givers’ sell more than ‘go getters.’ Traditional selling methods are not producing the result you are expecting because in every sense no one wants to be sold to. Why do you think a sales process takes more than five to six visits to close a deal? Why so many visits to your prospect’s place? Why customers take ‘so much of time’ to make up their mind? What has been missing in the traditional sales is ‘educating’ your prospects about your value and ‘relationship’ with customers.

Sales people’s real job is no more to sell but to help customers make the right decisions to buy. The new key words in selling are ‘educating your customer’ to be a smart shopper and ‘relationship’.

‘Education based selling’ is the process of making your prospects better, more informed customers, so that they know why they are paying so much to your products and services. During this process you make your prospects smarter by giving them valuable information about the products and services you offer. This will in turn build trust and credibility. You make your offer superior to the competition by explaining key and critical information that makes your offering superior.

Now put yourself in the customer’s shoes. What would you rather have, a business owner ‘SELLING’ you something, or a one that EDUCATES you about their product or service?

As a sales person you are educating your prospect to make better buying decisions. Here, you give prospects what they want… information and advice. You remove what they don’t want which is a sales pitch. You establish yourself as a business expert because prospects view you as a provider of information.  You take up the role of a consultant and give support to your prospect’s decision-making process.

Famous ‘Dell computers’ is one company who has understood the value of education based marketing. This innovative sales firm engages in upselling through education during all customer service interactions. The process is to turn a stranger into a friend and turn that friend into a customer.

If you want to breathe ‘the education based selling’ in your company, help your sales people to walk into the customer’s shoes. If you want to know your customer, you must know their concerns above all else. You need to observe their business and listen to them. Ultimately your prospect will buy for their reasons and not yours.  As a sales professional your job is to educate your customers through demonstrations by giving them a feel of your product or services. You must focus on providing solutions at the highest level. Make the process of doing business with you hassle free. And above all help the customer make a decision explaining them about the upside and down side of different products and services offered in the market place.

‘Education based relationship selling’ is the future of sales. In traditional selling methods you solicit your prospect with a biased sales pitch. The pitch is really not based on customer needs but rather your needs. There is no customer feedback requested and interaction is basically avoided by merely presenting your product or service and persuading rather than offering a solution that the customer wants and needs. Traditional methods are more of a numbers game. Love ‘em and leave ‘em or ‘convince them or confuse’ them rather than focusing on the long-term benefits of relationship building.

Long term relationship building is the key here. The new finding in a market research explains that it is five times more expensive to secure a new client than to maintain an existing one.  Relationship is the sustainable factor in continued business and loyalty with customers. People don’t buy from companies; they buy from people, and especially from people they trust the most. Therefore gaining the trust of your customer is essential in the relationship selling. You build the trust of your prospect and customer by acting on their interest rather than your own.  As a sales person your job is educate the customer to be a better buyer. You achieve this by providing valuable information to your prospects. And as a process while you continue educating your prospect, you gain a friend and a customer.

Business can be called as a transactional process built on the bed rock of relationships. Relationships are extremely important to success in all businesses today. Without having a strong, core relationship with all your customers or potential customers, it’s likely that your business will fail miserably. Following a good guideline when developing those relationships and carrying it through the entire sales process will assist you to improve revenue, retain customers and more often than not assure recurring business.

Here is the ultimate formula for sales. If you want to be successful in the world of sales, stop selling! You don’t need to convince the prospect to do business with you; they must convince themselves that you are the person they prefer to buy from. Prospects and customers don’t just buy the products and services they need, they buy a relationship with someone that they know is looking after their best interest.

‘Education based relationship selling’ is all about building friendship or relationship with your prospects and listening to their needs and concerns. Once you’ve built that relationship, shown you care, and earned their trust, you are on the road to making them a customer. Knowing the needs and finding the secret fears of your prospect will help you design the best solutions for them. With a relationship in place, working out details becomes a friendly process. Those details can become obstacles if you don’t have the existing relationship. Why not build customers for life! Go out and make some friends and then make some sales.

The truth is that, even if there is a ‘fool proof’ system, corporate excellence comes with vulnerability. There is no escaping, even if you are the mightiest of all. The bigger you get, the tentacles of collapse can engulf you-more like you are targeted at the perils of ‘slow ruin’.  Being the king of the industry now can’t boast of an unchallenged future. Many of the multinationals, more than half of them which Forbes magazine called as ‘great companies’ since 1995 have suffered precipitous decline in the last 15 years.  Seventy percent of the Fortune 500 companies listed in the year 1955 are now extinct. Of the companies on the 1979 Fortune 500 list, 40 percent no longer exist. Of those on the 2000 list, 30 percent are already disappeared.

What makes companies go extinct? What makes the mightiest fall? One answer is pretty clear- organizations that are not prepared to handle crises presented by the worst times of economic climate are prone to suffer badly. Companies that are built for only good times have to stop dancing when the music stops. But the real winners are the ones who make their music, even at the worst of times.

The economic climate is changing; the change has become the order of the day. Recessions and economic paranoia spreads like wild fire. The good news is that change creates opportunity. The bad news is that many don’t see things that way.

Our instincts are primal. They are rooted by fear and courage. Many people see danger while some see opportunity in crisis. Those who see opportunity pauses between the stimuli (what is causing the problem) and response (how we must react to the problem) and arrive at solutions.

When we are challenged with business problems or overwhelmed by an economic change, often triggered by the human nature, we tend to take three critical positions.

My in-depth study of companies and individuals has helped me name three primal human instincts. When we are encountered by a threatening proposition or a changing situation at large, we tend to embrace one of these three primal instincts. They are namely:

1.The resistance instinct.

This is the most dangerous proposition. This is the instinct to disapprove the very existence of danger or a situation even when they are vividly present.  Some people live in a state of denial. Common behaviours are ignoring the situation, just like how an ostrich buries its head when encountered by danger.

As a matter of fact, the people who get into trouble during a downturn are invariably the ones who go into it unprepared. Many people were affected by recession because they thought that recession will not affect them. They were unprepared and by the time it hit them, the unprepared ones were the most who suffered from the economic disaster and paranoia.

The state of denial is not a solution to any problem. Problems do not disappear by ignoring them. What you resist will persist and since you do nothing about solving the problem, the problems will remain eventually unresolved. Here; an organization or an individual who ‘resist’  changes will be wiped out by the tides of change.

2. Survival instinct.

When there is an economic paranoia or recession, usually the economy becomes smaller. Business activities shrinks and markets go down. People get into conservation mode than spending mode. People want to hold on to every penny they have. People will begin to believe in scarcity. The fear grows rapidly and the only thought you have is to survive.

In order to survive; individuals and organization begin to cut costs and downsize jobs. When they do that for survival, they will also drain most of their talent and resources, similar to the panic actions of a captain when the ship is sinking. Very often good projects are pushed to the back burner waiting for the right time. Someone once observed that there are no bad predictions; there’s only bad timing. Everything that booms at one time must bust another time like the bubbles. Today a larger concern is growing for the sustainable growth versus making bubbles based on economic deregulation and exaggerated speculations.

When an unmanageable change hits you hard, it is natural to reveal your survival instincts but what is very often forgotten is that survival instincts must be used as a short term strategy till you stabilize the unmanageable situation. Companies who use survival instincts for longer term tend to settle for mediocrity and they perish on a longer term. Those who tend to be overcautious after the crisis situation, remain in a bigger unresolved crisis. Mere survival instinct of hibernation can buy you time but this is no sure guarantee for success. The survivors take long time to recover from change. They act cautious and suspicious to the market changes and seldom notice the window of opportunity.

3. The evolutionary breakthrough instinct.

This is the winning formula. You not only breakthrough the challenges but also adapt to an evolutionary change. This is the winner’s instinct; which is the ability to breakthrough a problem to bring about favourable changes out of the most unfavourable circumstances. Here ‘crisis’ is understood literally as what Chinese letters that mean-danger and opportunity. When a disastrous situation is at hand, winner’s instinct will ask problem solving questions like ‘how can I turn around this obstacle into an opportunity or this adversity into an advantage’. Winners look for the flip side of an adversity or a crisis. They become solution providers and hence enterprising people who profit from their problems as well as others.

The evolutionary breakthrough instinct is responsible for keeping the mightiest from falling. Your ability to breakthrough challenges and problems give you the power to navigate and direct your destiny from any breakdowns. Remember every breakthrough in history is preceded by breakdowns. Breakdowns are actually empowering. As Robert Collier once wrote- ‘In every adversity there lies the seed of an equivalent advantage.’

As part of the evolutionary process, new steps will be taken. During economic crises, the vital indication would be that, what you do is no longer giving you the result that you are after. It is time to change and switch patterns. May be it is an invitation to take on new projects. Whatever it may be- it is the call for action. Here you do not survive- you thrive- you adapt, revise and revive your strategies. The truth of the matter is that change is nothing but a revision for constant improvement. You will embrace change with your breakthrough evolutionary instincts.

Let’s assume that you are enraptured in a global economic crisis. How do you really thrive in an economy that is headed for a massive decline? Or better yet, how do you really profit from a recession?

Here is the strategy:  In a recession economy, what makes you more competent is the price factor. The reason is that primarily the attitudes of customers change during the recession. When the economy is growing the major concerns of customers is on quality, service, reliability, and fair prices. In good times, the customers are very loyal to the suppliers who provide all these. But when the economy goes down, customers get very calculative and cautious in their spending.  They aren’t satisfied with a fair price anymore; they want your lowest possible price. There is no loyalty factor. Customers shift their loyalty to a supplier who can cater to their need at the lowest price possible. Now, here is the advantage. Become a low cost provider of products and services. Start competing on price.

Competing on price is possible if you know how to reduce your prices and yet maintain your profitability. Cost cutting becomes a mandatorily process. But you should be cutting them when you see the first warning signs of a possible collapse.  You can’t wait for a customer to tell you that your prices are too high. Watch out for the warning signs. You must make your move as soon as you see clear indications of an economic crisis. Don’t wait for the statistics to show up, instead pay attention to everything that is going on around you. You will see clear indications in your market; means if it is not growing, it is declining. You’ll see the signs, not only in your business but among your friends and other acquaintances. When customers spend less, often they do because they expect bad times ahead.  Anticipating slower sales, companies stop hiring. Projects are put on hold. People don’t pay their bills on time. Everyone acts conscious and cautious with their cash.

Having an awareness of what is going on in the market, gives you an advantage to prepare for the worst times. The right time to prepare for the worst times is in the good times. In good times you can think clearly and logically. Having mentally disassociated from a problem gives you an edge to think clearly and strategize better. The secret of lasting organizations is that they are prepared for the worst times. They do not panic when crisis show up, instead they deploy strategies to use the challenging times to their utmost advantage. When others sink in problems, they breakthrough and evolve. When others complain, they compete.

Apply your instincts wisely. Bottom line is that unprepared people get hurt in an economic downturn. But if you have a plan, you can come out stronger than ever. Have a breakthrough plan. Anticipate and arm yourself with counter measures. If you still keep a spare tyre in the trunk of your car, spare yourself some time to manage tomorrow’s crisis today.

Have you been thinking of starting your own business? Now let’s be honest here. How long have you been thinking of it? A few months? A year or two? More than a decade?

The world is full of two types of people; doers and talkers. Doers do. Talkers make excuses. Admittedly, starting a new business is one of the riskiest decisions that a person can make. However, your decision should not be made out of fear. In fact the greatest barrier to success is the fear of failure. We may not accept this fear but we show fear through a myriad of excuses and justifications.

Here are some common excuses that put off people from starting their own businesses:

1) “I don’t have enough money.”

That’s good news!! Lucky for you! If you had loads you’d only blow it anyway, like most cash-rich start-ups do. Stop complaining and look at it this way: millionaires start businesses all the time and fail; people with nothing start businesses all the time and succeed. Most of the success stories talk about starting on a shoe string budget. If you examine business history, you will learn that many people have substituted capital with hard work.

Start from where you are with what you have. If you don’t have an office space, start from home, start small and work with what you’ve got – it might take you longer, but what’s the rush, it is better than the alternative of not starting at all.

Many businesses can be started with little or no money. Start with small, start managing small, get smart and start managing big. Infosys started with Rs. 10,000 as a start up capital.

The truth is, while a lack of money might keep you from starting big, it doesn’t have to keep you from starting at all.  Any step you can take toward starting or building your business is a step in the right direction and will empower you to do more.

For those who are scared of losing the security that a job can give can start their business as a freelancer on the side while you keep your job.

If you have no money and if you are piled on with debts, then clear your debts first and then think about starting your business.

2) “I don’t have the right connections or experience.”

You don’t need any connections to begin and once you actually start your business you will naturally make connections. Many people did not have prior experience either. Here is the secret: ‘You can learn about business by being in business.’

Certainly, none of entrepreneurs who started today’s household brands knew everything they do now when they started out. You will learn along the way and usually from your mistakes and victories. If you don’t know something, learn it from someone who knows. Do not hesitate to ask for help whenever you need. Pay someone who knows as a consultant or take up a course. Take up a mentorship program.

If you’re still adamant that you need sufficient hands on experience, then work for someone who will teach you most of the tricks of the trade, if not all. Offer to be someone else’s shadow.

3) “I don’t have enough time.”

There is not a single excuse that gets me more fired up than this one. Because you do have time if at all you want it bad enough. If there is a will, there is a way. If something is important to you, you will make time. What do you think everyone else running their own business does? They make sacrifices. They give up TV. They stop watching cricket and reality TV. They reduce their social hours. They spend less time with alcohol.

Start focusing on your downtime hours. What do you do between 5am and 8am and 9pm and 2am? Sleep? Read the paper? Watch TV? Pick the sacrifice that will make your dream a reality and make it happen.

4) “I’m not sure what to do next.”

Most of the successful business enterprises in history have gone through this particular phase. Uncertainty is a great friend for an entrepreneur. It will awaken your imagination, keep you guessing and excited about the future.

There are great companies that are built with out having a clear idea. Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard, the founders of HP, decided to first start a company and then figure out what they would make. Thy just started moving forward, trying anything that might get them out of the garage and pay the light bills.

According to Bill Hewlett, co-founder of HP, he said “When I talk to business schools occasionally, the professor of management is devastated when I say that we didn’t have any plans when we started-we were just opportunistic. We did anything that would bring in a nickel. We had a bowling foul-line indicator, a clock drive for a telescope, a thing to make a urinal flush automatically, and a shock machine to make people lose weight. Here we were, with about $500 in capital, trying whatever someone thought we might be able to do.”

The truth of the matter is that their bowling foul-line indicator did not become a market revolution; neither their urinal flush nor fat reduction shock machine got any market acceptance. In fact the company stumbled along till they made a sale of oscilloscopes to Walt Disney studios. Even then HP continued its unfocused ways, with variety of products, until they got a sale boost from 1940’s war contracts.

Sony is another company that started without a specific aim. When Masaru Ibuka founded Sony in august of 1945, he had no specific product idea. According to Akio Morita, who joined the company shortly after its founding, “The small group sat in conference… and for weeks they tried to figure out what kind of business this new company could enter in order to make money to operate”. They considered a wide range of possibilities and products from sweetened bean paste soup to miniature golf equipments. Sony’s first product, a rice cooker failed to work properly and their first significant product a tape recorder failed in the market place. The company survived in the early stages selling heating pads, till they made a breakthrough in audio and radio technology.

The truth of the matter is that, most of the great enterprises start small and evolve according to times and are evolved by great breakthrough ideas.

Some of you may have great ideas but some of you may lack a great idea. According to Jim Collins who studied most of the successful companies on the planet, he says “waiting for the great idea might be a bad idea”. Sometimes you don’t need to know all the answers. You don’t need to know the whole path. You may have to just take the first step in faith. We don’t have to see the whole staircase.

5) “I don’t have enough education”

The majority of successful business owners I know either don’t have a University degree at all or got a degree in something other than business. Most of the business owners have informal education. They learn by gathering information. They are self taught, mentored and coached by other successful people. As Aristotle said: “What we have to learn, we learn by doing.” Many drop-outs have already proved this point that you do not need education to start a business, what you need is common sense and knowledge about the business you are in.

Business is common sense. If you can buy something for a rupee and then you can sell it for two, you made a profit and if you can understand that, you can understand the makings of an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs will come in all sizes and backgrounds. Some of them are incredibly competitive, some are hard working, some are risk takers, some are creative geniuses, some are visionaries, some are opportunists, some may be under educated and some may have Phd-s. Some will have great business back ground and some will have no background at all. Some may start early and some may start late. But all of them will fall in primarily two categories. The first group is not psychologically willing to work for or under anybody because they want to live a life in their terms and the second category wants to give so much of value to the world and they want to build a system where they get paid big in return.

6) “I don’t have a business background”

So what if your father or grandfather wasn’t a businessman. You don’t need “entrepreneurship in your genes” to start a business. You just need business sense. What you need is foreground more than your background-which is vision that can keep your dream alive at all times.

If you have the spirit of entrepreneurship and you have a strong desire and a drive to start your own enterprise, you must be ready to take the entrepreneurial plunge now, even though you may not have a great idea in place. Building a great company must be your focus and ideas will keep coming to those who are committed to build a great company, a company that will be admired by others, respected and loved by its customers, a company that will stand tall among its competition and will sustain and stay strong amidst the challenging times to come.

Wake up future entrepreneurs; decide to build a great company. Decide to be a value creator. Your business can help you to achieve whatever you want, if you can help your business achieve its goals. It is commitment that will keep you together with your business but it’s a life-changing commitment that requires a great deal of your time. But the possible rewards can often vastly out-weigh the trials, trouble and tribulations you’ll encounter along the way.

Last three years I was working on something larger than life. It is very special and a destined masterpiece till date considering my earlier works. Its huge. It has ten hours of motivation and it is truly a life enhancing experience to all its discerning listeners.

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The good news is that THE INNER GAME OF SUCCESS is soon hitting the Indian market for people who have been waiting for so long since its announcement. The first limited edition is already going through the early booking phase. Motivation has got better. If you are one of those people who wanted the ultimate edge, the finest tool to sharpen your life skills, then grab the opportunity at hand. This is the call for action.  Call my Bangalore office on 9902815613 and make your reservations for THE INNER GAME OF SUCCESS right now.

A successful brand connects with its audience and strongly influences their buying decisions. If your brand can not resonate with the deeper values of your customer base, then your brand will be forgotten in the future. Power brands are influential. They have a deeper neuro-association with their consumer base. They influence their choices but they do not manipulate their preferences.

They will make followers. They will build cults. They will become the source of motivation to many of its consumers. They are not there because we created them. They are their, because they have been presented to us in a manner how we perceive them.

Power brands have powerful value propositions. We can’t ignore them. They have made us depended on them. They made us their raving fans. Power brands are the future of sustainable brands food chain. They are here to stay. If you want to know how to build a power brand, see me speak at India’s biggest marketing seminar on 17th April at Hotel Ramada Kochi.

     There is only growing business or dying business. There is nothing called a matured business. Everything is evolving and constantly changing including businesses, markets and consumers.  Growth starts with a point of view and it often takes place when you stand up for a courageous idea supported with a solid strategy.

            Strategy starts with understanding the difference between what you offer to customer through your business and what really customers want, which often turn out to be not the same in most cases.

           You need to be alert in figuring out, what’s going on around you. What’s happening to your market place? How the needs of consumers are changing? What are the new opportunities you can spot? What are the new trends?

          If you keep an open mind with right frame of questioning, you can eventually grow your business from where you are to where you want to be.

            Growing business is a creative exercise. It does not require a degree or license. It requires basic childlike qualities like curiosity, inquisitiveness, imagination and enthusiasm backed with information, knowledge and skills. Strategic thinking is essential to business growth and in this ever faster changing world it has become a necessity. Business leaders must ask questions like what’s next?; what can be a better offering to customers?; or how to enlarge their ponds?; before it is too late to prepare their companies to adapt to rampant changes.

        Remember that, growth in any business is the growth in its leader’s mind set and how he is able to communicate that broader vision to his people. When leaders think and act progressively, they send signals and cues to their entire organization. Customers will soon catch on to the valuable offers a company is able to offer due to the company’s progressive thinking.

              Progressive thinking give ways to new ideas, practices, higher standards and values and this will increase the emotional energy of its people. It also attracts more customers to your business. 

            But thinking alone does not do all the tricks. Companies grow through their decisions to grow and what ultimately matters is what actions they take to accomplish a desired growth. There are many ways to grow your business. Here are seven ways that really work. 

1. Grow your market.

          Companies that want growth are always thinking about growing their market. They want to broaden their pond by playing on bigger fields like expanding their territories or finding new customer base. Increasing the market share is the name of the game.

              There are several ways of expanding the reach to your customers. One way of looking at is finding new geographical locations to market your products and services. For small time companies with outstanding offers, developing marketing partnerships with others will be an option to go national or international. 

              Another way to maximize customer reach is by increasing product and service awareness.

             Marketing strategy should be able to fully tap the existing customer base. A partially untapped market can only pave ways to more competitions. Therefore increase your market penetration with the existing offer or add value to your offer. Reaching out to your ‘ideal customers’ is the key to successful marketing. Make value added and irresistible offers to your customers to increase your market share. 

            In a completely exploited market with certain products and services, increasing product range is another strategy to grow your business. Once you have a trusted customer base, expand your products and services offer.

              Several companies have successfully expanded their market share with a ‘re-segmentation strategy’ by identifying and exploiting the unmet needs of customers. Through varied segmentations like – fairness cream for men, women and teens, companies like Fair & Lovely expanded their market share in the fairness market. 

2. Innovate your business

              The leaders of growing companies realize that constantly innovating business is the key to a sustainable future. Innovation is not always about coming up with a new product or services. It also means how you can change the way, you market your products. Dell computers used a direct marketing distribution model to reach out to your customers, when most of the computer companies were using traditional retail channel. When Domino’s Pizza wanted to innovate their business model, they became the first pizza company to create a ‘30 minute express door step pizza delivery’ model. 

               Look out for new distribution channels and find alternative methods to distribute your products and services. Innovation in marketing is the modern day weapon to capture a market, when traditional marketing system fails. The commodity is not important the way it is delivered is important.

               Open new market by developing new technology, products or services through innovation. Innovation leads to growth. Best way to innovate your business is to do your business in a different way. Growing companies reinvent themselves. 

3. Identify your Unique Selling Proposition (USP) and become a brand.  

            If your business and the product and services you offer are not unique, you are just like everybody else. If you are not a brand, you are just a commodity. A commodity market is too crowded. Branded market is the growing organized market. A brand will make the distinction in consumer’s mind. A brand signifies the Unique Selling Proposition (USP) of your company, product or services. 

          Most of the business owners do not know their Unique Selling Proposition (USP), but they assume they know it already. They will say that their products are reliable, it has value for money, long lasting, and better quality etc. Now that’s what everyone says. To know your USP, you must know your competitive advantage. Know your competitive advantage and use them to differentiate your business from the rest of your competition. Competitive advantage is what separates you from the rest of the herd. It is what keeps your business alive and growing. In short it is the reason you are in business.

              To become competitive, you have to become more conscious about why you are in business in the first place and what you are delivering that makes you unique.

          Once you know what you stand for, the customers will choose you.

               Competitive advantage goes by other names, as well like USP, unique offering, distinguished features, differentiators, core discriminating benefits of your product and services to customers. This is a rational and objective statement about your product, service or company that no other business offers. It could be inventing a new category altogether where there is no one to compete with you. It is not a cliché but it is your biggest claim to your customers. The major advantage with competitive advantage is that once it is convincing to your prospects, closing any deal is easy. 

                Most of the businesses tend to use ‘price’ as their competitive factor. It is only a short term remedy. There will be some one soon to under cut your offer and call themselves ‘cheap and best’. Look out ways to be different from others. Make your offering unique and build trust and reputation around your competitive advantage.

4. Build leadership at all levels.  

              Make people at all levels accountable, responsible, disciplined and pro active. Bring organizational structure and alignment that function in unison to achieve the common goals. A business is basically a collection of people working towards a common economic goal.

            Leadership stands for spotting opportunity while management stands for resolving problems. Having leadership at all levels is not bureaucracy. It is organization.

                     Never become an overmanned organization burdened with multiple layers of management. Simplify the management. People do not need to be controlled, they need to be directed. The best way to exercise leadership within the organization is making people responsible for their decisions and behavior.

             A company’s overall performance is simply the sum total of all actions and decisions that people inside it take everyday.  Who gets to make what decisions at your company? And what information, constraints, tools, and incentives affect the way they evaluate those decisions?

                  Give ‘decisions rights’ to your people and redesign your organization model based on each person’s powers and responsibilities. Decisions rights determine not only who is responsible for what choices but also how well an organization function and how quickly they can get results.

          What is running as life blood within the cells of leadership is a free flow of information.

          Make communication open and simple. This will build trust and loyalty at all levels. Relationships are strengthened through transparency. Conspiracies destroy the management. Transparency strengthens human bonds. 

5. Have a Vision of the future, knowledge of the past and awareness of the present. 

              Companies that have clear vision about the future of their business can invent their future while others who have no idea what future may bring may have to succumb to unseen circumstances. 

              Companies grow from their past performances and lessons they have learned. What is equally important is the awareness of the present.

             When all these are in right perspectives companies can gear up themselves to grow a sustainable future.

             What leaders need is to cultivate a shared vision for growth. A shared vision emerges from the intersection of personal visions and helps create a sense of commitment to the long term.  Shared vision cannot exist without personal vision. An organization must start the process of building a shared vision by encouraging others to create personal visions. Everyone must see a part of his or her personal vision in the shared vision. Shared vision takes time to emerge and requires on-going dialogue where advocacy is balanced with inquiry. By sharing and listening to each other’s personal visions, new insights will surface that continually shape the shared vision for continuous growth. 

6. Invest on your people.

             All people are not your assets in your organization, only the right people are. Growing companies invest on the growth of their employees. Employee’s growth in emotional well being, skill building and competency are essential for organizational growth. Growth driven companies make their people competent through ‘skill building’ training, workshops and expose them to other markets through seminars and expositions. As a result people get motivated. Employees feel they are cared by their management. This will increase the morale and productivity.

                It is also essential to recognize and reward performance. The organization’s failure to distinguish exceptional employees from poor performance breeds complacency and frustrates strong performers, who tend to leave for more merit-based opportunities.

         Growing companies make their work into play, their jobs into fun and challenging at the same time.

             Employee motivation is vital. A motivated work force is a power house of productivity.

          Growing companies work on building the emotional equity of their people.

              Emotional equity refers to the alignment of employees- as evidenced by their psychic energy, trust, and willingness to follow leaders eagerly and give 100% to the effort- with their company and goals. People with ‘emotional equity’ work in unison and synchronization with teams. They pay attention to more of results and to being effective than to the number of hours they put into work. This will put passion into work. People become purposeful. Purposeful driven people are zealous and result oriented. They see themselves fitting into a larger frame bigger than their ambitions. Engaged employees are your company’s emotional transmitters. They pass on their positive impressions about their employer to the customers that they interact with on a daily basis.

 7. Become a customer centric organization 

             All business exists for customers. All business grows when more customers are brought in to serve. Most of the functions of any business are customer acquisition, retention and customer service. Growing companies make themselves more valuable by providing more value to their customers.

            Customer satisfaction alone can not retain a customer.

              Customers can find satisfaction with any number of your competitors. What they can’t easily find, however, is a unique emotional experience. In this light, your company may be more associated with a feeling than with a product.

             Customer engagement is the key to unlocking long-term customer loyalty. Engaged customers feel emotionally connected to their favorite brands. They may be aware that they could obtain a similar product for a lower price, but their relationship with a certain company makes them willing to spend more. Research in customer satisfaction validates that; without a strong emotional connection, consumers are willing to quit a company as soon as a competitor offers a lower price. 

            Everything must be built around your customer, right from your marketing strategy.

             Remember that your marketing strategy starts, ends, lives and dies with your customer.

              So in the development of your marketing strategy, it is absolutely imperative that you forget about your dreams, forget about your visions, forget about your interests, forget about what you want- forget about everything except your customer!

                When it come to marketing, what you want is unimportant. It is what your customer wants is important.

             As a business owner or manager your biggest threat is losing sight of your most important target- your customer.

              Grow your company around your customers with a motivated work force willing to serve their customers 24/7  and expand your markets to the new heights through constant innovation.

Motivation is the most effective catalyst for change

     Everything we do because we are motivated to do; and everything we do not do because we do not have the motivation for it. Motivational speakers are the ‘why’ guys. They will present you with reasons to act. They put the motivation factor that can fuel anyone’s performance.

        An effective motivational speaker constantly challenges the status quo. They throw questions and suggestions for improvement by presenting diverse views, perspectives and winning attitudes. They are like the modern day philosophers, a counsel you can trust with opinions and facts.

            Motivational speaker’s primary weapon is a great attitude. They channelize their energy with powerful presentations. Powerful speeches can move an audience, make them think, act and change. 

           Motivational speakers are transformation experts. Major transformations are changes in beliefs. Beliefs are challenged under intelligent and rational analysis. We either change our beliefs for the better, or remain in the beliefs that give us the same results. Our decisions carry out our changes in beliefs. When we are not happy with the current results, we want to change them, because everyone is after growth. Growth is the result of a positive change. Positive change is the result of a realization. Realization is the result of awareness. Motivational speakers’ primary function is to transform what you already know or what you do not know into an awareness level. Once awareness hits you, you are willing to make the shift that is a necessary for growth. Therefore one of the primary function of a motivational speech is bringing awareness to an audience who have lost their edge. 

           The challenge for any speaker is to deliver that edge. Motivational Speakers are equipped with the latest information, knowledge, skill, talent and expertise.

           Stay motivated. When motivation is lost, the drive to accomplish something is lost. Sometimes, we all need that extra push, not only when we feel low but also when we lose our focus. Motivational speakers will push you to perform better. They are like the coaches for champions. If business is a game, you need a coach, whether for personal or group motivation-a great speaker will deliver you results.