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Decisive Leadership

November 12, 2014 Uncategorized No comments

Take No Prisoners is a free weekly memo from Scott Wintrip that explores how Radical Accountability prospers companies and changes lives. Instead of taking people hostage with outdated, heavy-handed, and ineffective methods of management, measurement, and motivation, Radical Accountability focuses on creating an unwavering responsibility for getting done what matters most.

When making decisions, people strive to get them right. Never have I met a competent leader or employee who purposely attempted to make the wrong choice. We each do our best when we have to make up our minds.

Thinking and deciding are straight forward unless we complicate them with over-analysis or under-utilization of our cognitive abilities. Radical Accountability for decisions provides us with a four-step approach for eliminating these human tendencies:

Stop…any task or activity that has nothing to do with the decision at hand. Distracted decision making is just as dangerous as distracted driving.

Breathe…and feed the brain with oxygen. Just a few breaths enriches the intellect, slows down any nervous energy, reduces emotional reactions, and increases presence and use of all of your faculties.

Think…about the desired outcome. When dealing with an area outside your expertise, think about whose input on that outcome would help, and ask for their experience and wisdom. Using others’ insights and your own intellect, make a choice that is the most efficient and effective way to create the desired outcome.

Act…immediately once a decision has been made.

Even if you later learn that a different decision is a better one, you can never fault yourself when you make decisions with Radical Accountability. You always have the option and ability to take any decision and adjust it to make it right.

This Week’s Radical Accountability Activating Action: Adopt and use Stop, Breathe, Think, and Act as your method for all decisions from now on.

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If you’d like to reach me, email: scott@ScottWintrip.com or call my direct line: (727) 502-9182

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Forest Ranger Leadership

November 5, 2014 Uncategorized No comments

Being a forest ranger is a much sexier job than being a firefighter. Yes, firefighters are heroes and even have their own calendars with partially clothed rescuers posing for the camera. The problem with firefighting is damage is always done when there’s a fire. What makes the job of a forest ranger even more attractive is that they keep fires from happening while “playing with fire” in appropriate ways. A controlled burn reduces forest density, eliminates potential future fires, and returns nutrient-rich organic material to the soil. Future growth after a controlled burn is often healthier, lusher, and greener as a result.

Leaders would do well to engage in more Forest Ranger Leadership. In fact, those who spend more of their time managing a controlled burn or, in the very least, promote fire prevention, have companies that are nimbler and more profitable than those that are constantly putting out fires.

Here is an example of the difference between Fire Fighting Leadership and Forest Ranger Leadership

Firefighting – Disciplining employees for poor results

Prevention – Consistently holding people accountable before they end up having poor results

Controlled Burn – Coaching employees to leverage strengths over weaknesses

Becoming a better leader is often as simple as putting out the fires one last time, and then joining the ranks of the forest ranger.

This Week’s Radical Accountability Activating Action: Go ahead, extinguish those current fires or, even better, get someone else to do it for you. Then, ask yourself, “How can I shift into consistently managing my company with prevention and controlled burns?”

Follow me on Twitter! You can find me here: https://twitter.com/ScottWintrip
Every day I provide pithy pieces of advice and wisdom. Join the growing crowd who read these gems every day.

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Check out my podcast series called Simply Scott on iTunes.

If you’d like to reach me, email: scott@ScottWintrip.com or call my direct line: (727) 502-9182

Visit my web site: https://www.WintripConsultingGroup.com

Close More by Selling Less

November 3, 2014 Uncategorized No comments

Resumes are incredibly flawed sales tools that prove the common saying that “less is more.” Case in point comes from a salesperson new to the staffing and recruitment industry. Instead of the resume he sent to the buyer creating buy-in, it’s generating pushback as the hiring manager is questioning why the candidate for a contract role has worked at seven companies in the past 10 years. The answer—each of these was a contract assignment. Yet, this fact did nothing to allay the concerns of the buyer, interfering with the salesperson’s ability to close him on even just talking with this candidate via telephone.

Less really is more when it comes to how much we sell and the sales tools we employ. Here are three of the top 20 ways to close more by selling less:

Instead of soliloquies, speak in soundbites (ideally, nine seconds or less).

Rather than scheduling interviews, set up working interviews, allowing the buyer to experience the candidate.

When something on paper is required, submit accomplishment profiles instead of resumes, highlighting the details that matter instead of the minutiae that creates confusion.

Giving the customer more space to close him or herself can only happen if we simplify the process. And since buyers always believe themselves and only sometimes, if ever, believe us, letting the better closer close (them, not us) is worth the lessening of our efforts, and letting them feeling more in control.

Motivation is an Inside Job

October 29, 2014 Uncategorized No comments

Ever wonder why employee motivation tends to ebb and flow? The reason may surprise you.

Leaders who try to motivate their staff end up with a less motivated workforce. It is actually impossible to motivate someone, since being motivated is an individual choice, an act of freewill. Any attempts at motivating others becomes counterproductive, especially over time, as employees quickly learn they don’t have to take responsibility for their own initiative. This creates an unhealthy, dependent relationship and a vicious cycle, as pictured below.

What’s working, and working well, is when leaders form an interdependent relationship with their teams. The job of leaders, in this healthy scenario, is to create an environment that promotes the opportunity, platform, and likelihood that employees will be inspired to take action, often even exceeding expectations.

Motivation is an inside job—existing inside the minds and bodies of each individual. Sustainable motivation only happens when managers create opportunities for inspired work, hold people responsible for taking initiative, and employees follow through and do their part.

This Week’s Radical Accountability Activating Action: Take time this week to ascertain how much you’re trying to motivate versus creating an environment where people take full responsibility for their own motivation.

Workshop Opportunity: I’ll be running a special leadership workshop at the TechServe Alliance conference next week in Boca Raton. If you’ll be attending, I invite you to join me.

Follow me on Twitter! You can find me here: https://twitter.com/ScottWintrip
Every day I provide pithy pieces of advice and wisdom. Join the growing crowd who read these gems every day.

You may subscribe and encourage others to subscribe by clicking here.

Check out my podcast series called Simply Scott on iTunes.

If you’d like to reach me, email: scott@ScottWintrip.com or call my direct line: (727) 502-9182

Visit my web site: https://www.WintripConsultingGroup.com

Questionable Leadership

October 22, 2014 Uncategorized No comments

Next time an employee asks you to repeat a question, count the number of words you originally used in asking the question. Chances are, it was more than ten. What’s the issue? Our brains process questions of less than ten words much more effectively.

Each time we make a lengthy inquiry, the listener spends more time focusing on the question and less on his answer. Even if he doesn’t ask you to repeat the question, which often happens, he is still too focused on your question.

Questions using ten words or less are understood more quickly and answered more thoroughly. This generates lots of details, a richer conversation, and automatic buy-in as the employee always believes everything he says. As a result, he becomes more self-sufficient, solving more of his own problems while also benefiting and learning from your positive example. In addition, we become known as someone whose occasional comments are valuable and not to be missed or ignored.

Our mantra in leadership should always be:

Say little, ask a lot.

This Week’s Radical Accountability Activating Action: Make say little, ask a lot your way of being a great leader.

Follow me on Twitter! You can find me here: https://twitter.com/ScottWintrip
Every day I provide pithy pieces of advice and wisdom. Join the growing crowd who read these gems every day.

You may subscribe and encourage others to subscribe by clicking here.

Check out my podcast series called Simply Scott on iTunes.

If you’d like to reach me, email: scott@ScottWintrip.com or call my direct line: (727) 502-9182

Visit my web site: https://www.WintripConsultingGroup.com

What Every Customer Will Buy

October 15, 2014 Uncategorized No comments

The hardest sell of all is to the buyer who thinks he or she does not need you. All too often, salespeople find themselves clamoring for ideas and words to deal with this common situation, and, as a result, end up foolishly saying things that erode their image and their standing.

What many leaders in sales and, by default, their team members either don’t know or forget is that every prospective customer can improve their current circumstances. If things are great, they can be greater. If they’re facing challenges, those can be overcome. The most savvy salespeople determine what’s happening, and what they can do to improve upon that current set of circumstances. This means every buyer, without exception, can benefit from what your company offers, but only if you make a clear connection between their status quo and how your offering achieves something better.

The practice of Radical Accountability requires that we always give those we work with what they really need. In sales, this happens in three steps:

Instead of just taking orders, take time to truly understand each customer’s current situation, objectives, fears, and the impact these have on the buyer.
Collaborate with the buyer, asking what a better set of circumstances would look like and the impact these would have, personally, on him or her.
Offer options for how you can contribute to achieving those improved circumstances.

This Week’s Radical Accountability Activating Action: Work with your sales team to improve their ability to understand each prospect’s current circumstances, using the three-step model above as a framework.

Follow me on Twitter! You can find me here: https://twitter.com/ScottWintrip
Every day I provide pithy pieces of advice and wisdom. Join the growing crowd who read these gems every day.

You may subscribe and encourage others to subscribe by clicking here.

Check out my podcast series called Simply Scott on iTunes.

If you’d like to reach me, email: scott@ScottWintrip.com or call my direct line: (727) 502-9182

Visit my web site: https://www.WintripConsultingGroup.com

What is Radical Accountability?

October 8, 2014 Uncategorized No comments

A growing number of leaders are becoming interested in something better—better results, less labor intensity, increased employee engagement, or a higher level of personal responsibility, just to name a few of their most common aspirations. Which has led them to ask about Radical Accountability and how to attain it.

Here are four of the core tenets of Radical Accountability:

Radical Accountability insists we tell our truth, even if we’re afraid it’ll piss someone off. This does not mean we have permission to say whatever we want, however we want; Direct Compassion is part of our code in the practice of Radical Accountability. Read more on this tenet

Radical Accountability requires expeditious, mutual forgiveness for our shared humanity. We are all going to screw up. As a result, we must apologize quickly and forgive even faster. Given our fallible natures, we should seize every misstep, misspoken word, and innocent blunder as the opportunity it is-a moment to connect at a deeper level with a follow human being. This applies to all relationships, business and personal alike. Read more on this tenet

Radical Accountability doesn’t enable technological co-dependency or automation anorexia. People who practice Radical Accountability use technology just enough, but never so much that it consumes them to the point of distraction, becoming almost like an addiction—Cyberholism. Read more on this tenet

Radical Accountability promotes faithful leadership over fearful leadership. For those who manage leaders who lead by fear, stop putting up with this. You’re culpable if you don’t. Set clear standards and expectations for a positive approach of unwavering responsibility. Hold your leaders to improving and meeting this standard. If they can’t, let them go. Move on. Read more on this tenet

This Week’s Radical Accountability Activating Action: Pick the tenet which “speaks” to you the most and take action this week to instill it within your culture.

Follow me on Twitter! You can find me here: https://twitter.com/ScottWintrip
Every day I provide pithy pieces of advice and wisdom. Join the growing crowd who read these gems every day.

You may subscribe and encourage others to subscribe by clicking here.

Check out my podcast series called Simply Scott on iTunes.

If you’d like to reach me, email: scott@ScottWintrip.com or call my direct line: (727) 502-9182

Visit my web site: https://www.WintripConsultingGroup.com

Knowledge and Power

October 6, 2014 Uncategorized No comments

Scott's Monday Morning Message People often say knowledge is power, which is incredibly inaccurate. Knowledge applied in a compelling way is true power as it engages people in a meaningful manner. The question is, with so much available knowledge, how does one pick and choose what to acquire and what to ignore?

Companies in staffing and recruitment, in particular, often don’t have the right knowledge that will be powerful in how it helps them support prospects and customers in improving their current circumstance. Instead, our industry often falls into order taking mode or, even worse, assuming what customers say they need is the real need. For example, one staffing company in Massachusetts took an order from a buyer while their competitor, who is my client, gained deeper knowledge as to the business issues and challenges the customer was facing. That knowledge led to better solutions that are now saving that customer money rather than engaging in the same old hiring routines that were perpetuating the problems.

While there are a list of critical questions that should be asked of buyers, one, in particular, unlocks a treasure trove of knowledge that will allow you to create more meaningful relationships, provide better service, deepen your impact, and allow you to deliver tremendous value. That question is:

“What are your business objectives in the next 12 months?”

Often, if you listen carefully, you’ll hear a misalignment between those objectives, and the order the customer is about to hand out. If you address that gap and provide a solution that helps achieve those objectives, you’ll not only win more business, but their hearts, minds, and maybe even a touch of their souls. That’s real power that benefits all.

Four Leadership Must Practices

October 3, 2014 Uncategorized 1 comment

Best Practices are brilliant; Innovative Practices are absolutely magnificent. Must Practices, which not as glitzy, sexy, or exciting, are non-negotiable ways of doing leadership and being a great leader that are a requirement for success. Here are four crucial Must Practices:

Today’s leaders must…

1. …foster sustainable collaboration.
There’s always room and need for improvement in the collaborative efforts of work groups and teams. To make this happen, leaders must prime the collaborative pump. Read more

2. …require direct reports to create and follow sustainable action plans.
Defining how results will be achieved is often the missing step that keeps them from happening. Sustainable action plans aren’t hard to create, there’re just not being created and followed. Read more

3. …push the leadership reset button.
Our human nature is one of perfect imperfection, which means our brains occasionally need a reset or even a reboot to reengage our effectiveness. Leadership Power Cycling is the human equivalent of a computer reset button. Read more

4. …lose their own baggage.
While losing your baggage is a hassle when flying it can be a transformational catalyst for evolving two things very near and dear to you—your business and your life. Read more

The Hire Right Assessment

October 1, 2014 Uncategorized No comments

Are you hiring right? “Of course we are,” answered Dan, a CEO who is a new advisory client from the West Coast of the United States. Then, he took the Hire Right Assessment and was shocked to learn how much better other companies were doing at hiring for internal staff.

Getting hiring consistently right is difficult for most companies, which is one reason why the staffing and recruitment industry has grown and flourished over the years. However, most executives in staffing admit that their companies are much better at doing this for their customers than they are for themselves.

Why is this? And why hasn’t this improved over the past few decades?

To help create some Radical Accountability in hiring, I’m now making the Hire Right Assessment publicly available. This tool will help you compare your efforts to the Best and Innovative Practices employed by companies whose internal hiring processes are operating at peak efficiency.

To see how your company compares, answer each of the following:

1. When hiring tenured individuals, which of the following resources accounts for more hires than the others listed?
  1. Advertising
  2. Job board postings
  3. Referrals
  4. Direct sourcing and recruiting

1. Prior to making an offer, do you require that candidates work on a project (paid or unpaid) that requires use of the same skills for the position they are seeking?
  - Yes
  - No

1. Does your company have a set methodology in place for eliminating emotion from the hiring process?
  - Yes
  - No
  - I’m not sure

1. Which of the following methods is most frequently used to check references?
  1. Calling those provided by the candidate
  2. Emailing those provided by the candidate
  3. Sourcing our own list of references to check
  4. We don’t consistently check references

1. For sales and recruiting roles, which type of candidates are the majority of your hires:
  1. People with staffing or recruiting experience
  2. Individuals without staffing or recruiting industry experience
  3. Candidates from the 10 most transferable job types, including fundraising and door-to-door sales

1. Which of the following best describes the profile for those you hire for recruiting roles:
  1. Friendly, relationship oriented people who can also handle all of the HR responsibilities that come with the job
  2. Sales oriented people who are motivated to close deals
  3. Analytical type individuals who are good at assessing candidate skills and client fit
  4. Expressive people who are good at talking candidates into considering opportunities

1. Which of the following best describes who you typically hire for sales roles:
  1. Hunters – salespeople who hunt down new customers and business
  2. Farmers – salespeople who develop and nurture business at existing accounts
  3. Both A and B
  4. Architects – salespeople who create business where there appears to be none

1. Who is typically promoted to management:
  1. Top producers
  2. Above average producers
  3. Average producers
  4. Below average producers

Are all new producers in sales and recruiting roles generating enough margin dollars to cover all of their payroll expenses and burdens by no later than their sixth month of employment?
- Yes
- No
- I don’t know

This Week’s Radical Accountability Activating Action: Answer the questions, then compare your results to the companies getting the best results from their hiring process.

Best Companies at Internal Hiring:1. D, 2. Yes, 3. Yes, 4. C, 5. C, 6. B, 7. D, 8. C, 9. Yes

Follow me on Twitter! You can find me here: https://twitter.com/ScottWintrip
Every day I provide pithy pieces of advice and wisdom. Join the growing crowd who read these gems every day.

You may subscribe and encourage others to subscribe by clicking here.

Check out my podcast series called Simply Scott on iTunes.

If you’d like to reach me, email: scott@ScottWintrip.com or call my direct line: (727) 502-9182

Visit my web site: https://www.WintripConsultingGroup.com

Uncategorized

Decisive Leadership

Forest Ranger Leadership

Close More by Selling Less

Motivation is an Inside Job

Questionable Leadership

What Every Customer Will Buy

What is Radical Accountability?

Knowledge and Power

Four Leadership Must Practices

The Hire Right Assessment

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