Leadership and Sales BLOG

Denver CO, 7/30/10 Drop-In Leadership Coaching is a new offer from acclaimed speaker, author and sales & leadership coach Mike Faber. Drop-In Leadership Coaching is a dynamic one-hour, open-phone line discussion that anyone in your organization can call in to. Leaders from any level bring their leadership challenges and get real-time coaching on their topic. If a subject cannot be covered in a group setting, leaders can ask for a short (30 minute) one-on-one phone coaching session at half the cost ($125/30-minute session) of Mike’s regular in-person level.

Here’s what makes this break-through concept a winner!

Ø      Mike will kick off each call with a leadership challenge example from his own background of 25 years of corporate leadership experience. This keeps the call focused on leadership issues, versus becoming a “gripe” session.

Ø      Focused coaching on one topic enables leaders from different enterprises and management levels to learn from each other.

Ø      One-on-one leadership coaching for managers, team leads and supervisors for a budget-friendly investment.

Ø      A time management/coaching skills/professional development planning action step that can be implemented easily will be introduced on each conference call.

Ø      All interactions are on a first-name or pseudonym basis to encourage idea-sharing and problem solving.

Ø      Coaching sessions are spread through-out the month in a variety of time slots. This enables your leaders to participate when it’s most convenient for them, and when participation means a minimal intrusion on work-hours. They can drop off the call anytime, or join in at any time.

Ø      All calls are recorded so leaders can listen at their leisure. Highlights will be turned into down-loadable Pod-casts.

Ø      All leaders can opt-in (at no additional cost) to Mike’s monthly email newsletter digest of sales and leadership tips.

Mike Faber is a Coach Training Alliance certified coach with more than 3,500 hours of coaching experience. Mike’s been certified at the Elite level of coaching with Robbins Research International and has worked with business executives and front-line managers at Oracle, Ball Aerospace, Oppenheimer Funds, Charles Schwab and Company, Hitachi Consulting, Sage Hospitality Resources and Colorado Springs Utilities.

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At $225 per hour, Drop-In Leadership Coaching is a cost-effective development tool for your business. When you purchased convenient 6-12- or 18-session “packages” your investment is clearly defined and easy to budget. To find out more, or to schedule a free Drop-In Leadership “demo” session, please call Mike Faber at 720.851.5208 or toll-free at 877.262.2402.

A mentor reminded me years ago that what we do in sales and building relationships isn't complex. If you work hard, do the right things, and treat others better than you could hope to be treated, good things will happen. Consistency, focus, creativity, faith and perserverance are the key ingredients to any success story. Hmmm, maybe I should leave blog-writing and switch to Chinese fortune cookies! Here are a baker's dozen of the activities I focus on every day:

1. Posting on social media.
2. Writing and recording articles and blogs.
3. Making business development calls.
4. Making new contacts.
5. Offering help to someone I know.
6. Asking for help from someone I know.
7. Contacting a client who I've worked with in the past.
8. Phoning instead of emailing.
9. Conducting an interview for a writing or speaking project.
10. Creating my keynotes and workshops.
11. Writing a thank-you note.
12. Marketing my services and the services of others.
13. Making a referral.

This list was developed during a coaching interaction I had recently. Like many business-people, I have always known which activities produce results, but focusing on those activities was a real challenge sometimes. Sound familiar? Here's how to break out of that trap once and for all.

Write one of your revenue-producing activities on an index card, and repeat. Once you have a stack, large or small, of all those activities, shuffle the deck and pick a card. The more time you spend doing those activities, the more fulfilled and successful you will be.

For more great tips on sales, leadership and success, please download the Mike Faber IPhone app at http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sell52cards/id369889097?mt=8&uo=6

For keynotes, workshops and Mike's Aloha Leadership presentation, call 720.851.5208 (US)

I developed these to help the business professionals (and professional speakers) who I coach on presentation skills. These are the "Top 10" Presentation Tips, please visit the URL below to download the remaining 40 top presentation skills to your IPhone!

Mike Faber’s 50 Top Presentation Tips!

1.  Accentuate the positive as you coach yourself.  Resist the temptation to focus on what you’re doing wrong, and redirect your energies to recognize and reward what you’re doing right. 

2.  When in doubt, ask a question.  Asking your audience for their input shows your concern for their experience of you. 

3.  Respect your audience.  Don’t ask for respect, show it.  Keep the focus on the rewards they can reap from your hard work and preparation.

4.  Speak deliberately, give your audience the time to process and react to what you have to say.

5.   Communicate the key points of your message repeatedly.  Tell stories to illustrate those points.

6.   Distill complex information into its basest elements.  If you can’t describe a concept clearly and succinctly so that every audience member understands it, leave the concept on the cutting room floor.

7.    Concentrate on making others look good, the reflection you see will be your own.

8.    Stuff happens.  If the projector doesn’t work, you misplace your speaker’s notes, or the felt marker goes dry, don’t apologize.  Soldier on.  Better yet, have a backup plan.

9.     Understand the audience’s motivation to listen.  Find out who’ll be listening, why and what they expect from you.

10.    No-one has a script except for you.  If you erred on a fact, correct yourself.  If you erred on a style point, ignore it and move on. 

Download the IPhone app for just 99 cents! You'll get the remaining 40 top presentation tips, articles on presentation, sales and leadership skills, plus blog updates and video podcasts. Here's the URL http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sell52cards/id369889097?mt=8&uo=6

As I've researched leadership with a Hawaiian twist, I've been connecting with the Island community here in Colorado. One thing that becomes readily apparent is that family (or "ohana" in Hawaiian) is not defined solely by blood relation. At a gathering of Hawaiians, everyone quickly becomes an "Uncle" or "Auntie" to the kids and friendships blossom.

While friendships form quickly, trust takes longer. In social settings, friends make plans for barbeques or golf games. In business settings, we form bonds of trust a bit more slowly. Can you depend on a partner to follow through on her commitments? Will a businessman adhere to a handshake or written agreement? In the perfect world the answer to both of those questions is a resounding "Yes!" The people we interact with daily watch us carefully to see whether our words match our actions.

Kevin Roberts F.A.C.H.E. is the President and CEO of Castle Medical Center in Kailua, Hawaii. In a recent interview, he spoke about trust building with competitors and offered this insight.

"We have competition and conflict, but it's not nearly as widespread as I experienced on the mainland. Here, it's a completely different ethos. There's an ability to preserve our roles (to employers) and confidentiality without strife. (In Hawaii) you don't have to 'conquer' others to be successful"

What would building trust in your niche of the business community do for you? Better yet, consider the ways you can be the catalyst for increased trust. Treating people like family isn't a weakness in business, it actually enhances communication and trust.

Click this link to see the Aloha Leadership keynote http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=105851563&TemplateId=156&lnkkey=Link2&utm_source=ORM&utm_medium=notification&utm_term=viewvideo&utm_campaign=Group41EmailVideo

Warning! You are about to read the rant of a middle-aged man who is losing patience with the pace of today's society. Read on if you dare.

I received an email reply recently from a client. We've had a hard time scheduling his coaching sessions, and finally came up with a date and time that will work for both our busy schedules. When I replied to his confirmation with a sentence saying I was looking forward to our next meeting, his response was "Ty".

When did we become so busy that saying, or typing, "Thank You" became too onerous a task to complete? I want my tombstone to read "So, NOW you decide you have time to visit?" Audiences who come to hear me speak about sales and the 52 Greatest Business Development Questions Ever! http://www.52bdcards.com/ & http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sell52cards/id369889097?mt=8&uo=6 want to know the secret of a great salesperson. To paraphrase Woody Allen, "90% of success is thoughtfully answering your email and voice-mail."

Ty for reading.