How to handle media interviews

It's been a while since I did live TV, but I still remember how surprised I was that they don't give you advance warning of the questions you'll be asked. If you have to deal with papers, radio or TV, it'll be the same: "30 seconds Mr. Sidwell....then 5-4-3-2-1 and you're live !"

So here are the rules of engagement.

1 Understand that journalists are focussed on the story: they don't care about you. It's taken you a lifetime to build up your reputation, and an unguarded public statement can destroy it in seconds.

2 Don't, whatever you do, answer the journalist's questions ! No, no, no. You're being interviewed, right ? So you decide what's said, don't you ? So before you start, think carefully of the 3 main points you want to make. Ideally they will be based on strong facts, benefits, good news, etc. The really good news. Write down the key words for the 3 points, and either sellotape them under the camera lens or write them on your cuff. Now, this is really important: whatever question you're asked, pick the point that most nearly answers it, and spin it as the answer. Then when question two comes, you have two answers to choose from. And yes, question three gets the final remaining message. If there are further questions, don't go off piste: choose the most appropriate of your three points, and repeat it, just changing the words slightly. Only give the answers you want to give.

3 Never, never, ever, say yes in an interview. If you say yes, you'll find the journalists take their ambiguous, multi-dimensional question, rephrased and reinterpreted as if you'd said it. In interviews, whatever the journalist says, even if you 100% agree with it, always say No. Even if you then say exactly the same thing in your own words.

4 Be very careful with your choice of words, particularly if you're handling a difficult situation. Issue, situation, position are all excellent words - even if they're quoted out of context they're not interesting enough to be news. You can acknowledge the seriousness of the situation, and fully understand people's concerns blah blah blah. But do not use words like problem, worry, concern, or broken: they make wonderfully attention grabbing headlines and invite only more questions.

5 It's best not to go off record.Yes, sometimes, it helps no end if you can explain something tricky off the record, before going on the record once the journo understands. But in reality, it's best not to do this: if it's juicy enough, they'll find some other way of corroborating your private explanation, and you're sunk just as surely as if you'd blurted it out in a bar.

6 At all times stay icy calm, and don't get into an argument. You can say: "No, that's not the way I see it and then explain your point of view (see point 2 above). But don't argue. Keep in mind the old advice warning of the dangers of arguing with a pig: you'll both get dirty, but the pig likes it.

7 If your back is really against the wall, be silent. Don't say No comment, or respond in any way. Shut the door, walk away, look down, show no emotion, be completely passive: don't give them anything to hang a story on.

Be careful out there.....

Seven Personality Traits of Top Salespeople

A recent article in the Harvard Business Review published the results of research into the personality differences between top and average performing salespeople. The top performers had the following personality attributes:.

1. Modesty. Contrary to conventional stereotype of salespeople as pushy and egotistical, 91% of top salespeople had medium to high scores of modesty and humility. Results suggested that ostentatious salespeople who are full of bravado alienate far more customers than they win over.

Selling Style Impact: Team Orientation. As opposed to establishing themselves as the focal point of the purchase decision, top salespeople position the team (presales technical engineers, consulting, and management) that will help them win the account as the centrepiece.

2. Conscientiousness. 85% of top salespeople had high levels of conscientiousness, responsibility and reliability, with a strong sense of duty. They take their jobs very seriously and feel deeply responsible for the results.

Selling Style Impact: Account Control. The worst position for salespeople to be in is to have relinquished account control and to be operating at the direction of the customer, or worse yet, a competitor. Conversely, top salespeople take command of the sales cycle process in order to control their own destiny.

3. Achievement Orientation. 84% of the top performers tested scored very high in achievement orientation. They are fixated on achieving goals and continuously measure their performance in comparison to their goals.

Selling Style Impact: Political Orientation. During sales cycles, top sales, performers seek to understand the politics of customer decision-making. Their goal orientation instinctively drives them to meet with key decision-makers. They focus on the people they are selling to, and how the products they're selling fit into the organization, rather than the functionality of the products themselves.

4. Curiosity. Curiosity can be described as a person's hunger for knowledge and information. 82% of top salespeople scored extremely high curiosity levels. Top salespeople are naturally more curious than their lesser performing counterparts.

Selling Style Impact: Inquisitiveness. They ask customers difficult and uncomfortable questions in order to close gaps in information. Top salespeople want to know if they can win the business, and they want to know the truth as soon as possible.

5. Lack of Gregariousness. Top performers scored 30% lower in gregariousness (preference for being with people and friendliness) than below average performers.

Selling Style Impact: Dominance. The results indicate that overly friendly salespeople are too close to their customers and have difficulty establishing dominance, and their recommendations and advice are not followed.

6. Lack of Discouragement. 90% of successful salespeople were rarely discouraged and only occasionally sad. Less than 10% of top salespeople were classified as having high levels of discouragement and being frequently overwhelmed with sadness.

Selling Style Impact: Competitiveness. Top performers are able to handle emotional disappointments, bounce back from losses, and mentally prepare themselves for the next opportunity to compete.

7. Lack of Self-Consciousness. Over 95% of top performers were not easily embarrassed: they weren’t bashful or inhibited in their behaviours.

Selling Style Impact: Aggressiveness. Top salespeople are comfortable fighting for their cause and are not afraid of rankling customers in the process. They are action-oriented and unafraid to call high in their accounts or courageously cold call new prospects.

How to find at least another hour every day

There’s nothing new in the world: Peter Drucker in 1967 recommended that you should “…reserve large blocks of time on your calendar, don’t answer the phone, and return calls in short bursts once or twice a day.”

I recently turned off remote email access on my iPhone. It's as if I have another hour every day. Why ?

1. Rather like not missing TV when you're on holiday, you just don't miss your email when it's not available. It means your attention is not fragmented, and you can focus 100% and be fully engaged with the moment.
2. Reading email on the phone was pointless: only very rarely did I reply to it remotely, but waited till I was in front of a proper keyboard...so why process messages twice ? And if anyone wants me urgently, then text or phone call is much, much better in all cases.
3. And above all this, I found I was becoming hooked on checking it, simply because I could. I am much happier now I've taken back control of my behaviour.

Go on, try it, what's the worst that could happen ? It won't hurt, I promise. You'll have more time, and be happier too. How many pieces of free advice can deliver that so easily ?

No-one is indispensable

There are plenty of indispensable people in the grave yard, even those who thought they were the most powerful.....

A farmer has an ox and a mule pulling his plough. The soil is stony, and life is hard. The ox is clearly the biggest and strongest animal, but is tired of shouldering more of the burden than the mule.

One winter's morning, it's dark and frosty outside, and the ox decides to throw a sickie. It lies in the hay, pretending to be ill. The farmer is full of concern, mixes up a bucket of warm oats, wraps him up in a blanket, and sets off with the mule to plough the fields. That evening when the mule returns, the ox says "Did the farmer say anything about me ?" The mule replied, "No, not a word. He helped me pull the plough, and it's late now but we got the work done."

Next morning, the ox was warm and comfortable in the hay, and decides to act ill again. The farmer wraps him up warm and leaves him hot oats, and spends the day with the mule in the fields. When the mule returns, tired out, the ox asks again: "Did the farmer say anything about me ?" The mule replied, "No, not a word. But he did have a long talk with the butcher on the way home."

How to set up a productive strategy/planning session

Some people shudder when they hear the word strategy. To them it means expensive days away in chain hotels, management consultancy jargon, endless opinionated chatter, well-rehearsed disagreements, and back in the real world nothing changes. Because poorly managed planning sessions can be so frustrating and pointless, they avoid them, and stick with the day job: however hard it is, it's easier than herding cats on a strategy day.

But without plans, things only change by accident, or when they're so broken it's easier to change than not. Many companies are like a ship of fools, management's perpetually rushing around, doing what they’ve always done, busy working in the business, but with no time to work on the business. I actually heard someone say once: ‘Yes, I have a plan, I just haven’t written it down yet.’

However, if you keep the language simple, and reframe the word strategy for both yourself and your team it’s possible to reset attitudes and arrange a positive, productive planning session.

• Reframing for you: ask yourself: ‘Does my company respond to strategy, or pain ?’ Of course you want it to respond to strategy: instant attitude shift.
• Reframing for your team: Don’t describe the day as a strategy day: in the invitation, call it ‘A meeting where we’re going to agree what we will do differently’.

As you start the meeting, insist on laptops and phones being turned off. Then...

• Go round the room, and ensure everyone (including you !) has 10 minutes to say whatever they want. Ensure everyone can speak their mind without interruptions or discussions (although questions for clarification are ok).
• After each 10 minutes, summarise their input and get their agreement you’ve understood.
• Then have a 5 minute tea and pee break to get your thoughts together.
• When you get back, summarise everyone’s thoughts, and set the agenda for the meeting using the theme ‘Here are the areas where we're going to do things differently.”

What to do if good staff aren’t performing

If something in your car is broken, you can press and press the accelerator and all you get is more engine revs, but no movement: something may be broken in the machinery.

This happens with even the best people: for no apparent reason they can sometimes become less effective, and you know your words aren’t making any difference.

Sometimes…

• peoples’ attention is fragmented, continuous swapping between jobs means lower output: they need help in shutting themselves away, preventing interruptions, taking control – or possibly you’re putting them in an impossible position, and you need to make changes elsewhere to reduce the interruptions
• people have information overload and are confused: perhaps you need to help them rationalise the data and refresh their plan and deliverables
• even the best people can be overwhelmed, and their wheels start spinning, they start to flap and productivity drops: they need help prioritising, and then setting others’ expectations of when deliverables will be appearing
• people trying to please impatient bosses end up letting them down because they hadn’t been briefed properly (or didn’t ask the right questions) but now don’t want to admit they weren’t really ready to start.

Time to take a different tack. Take the person to a quiet room, with the list of what was expected of them, and go through it, slowly, one by one:

• Was she briefed well enough for each task ?
• How long did she think it would take her ?
• How long did it actually take her ?
• If it took longer, then why ?

Once you properly understand the detail, rebuild their work plan with them, change processes if you need to, and refocus them. Yes, this takes time. But you’re a good manager aren’t you ? You’re in control of your time, aren’t you ?

How to make big changes happen when you're busy

A Zen master was asked how to make big changes happen in a busy world.

The master began by putting large rocks in a pot. Only three would fit. He asked his pupils if it was full, and they said ‘Yes Master’. So he took some stones, and used them to fill in the space around the rocks. Again, he said: ‘Is the pot full ?’, and the answer came back ‘Yes Master’. So he poured some gravel into the pot. By this time the students hesitated when he asked if the pot was full, but still said ‘Yes’. So the Master piled sand onto the rocks, and shook the pot till the surface was completely level. ‘Is the pot full now ?’ ‘Oh yes Master’ they said, but were amazed when he poured water into the pot and it took a surprisingly long time before it started spilling over the edge.

‘Students,’ said the Master, ‘the pot is now full. But what is the moral of my story ?’

One student replied ‘No day is so busy that we cannot achieve more.’ ‘Yes,’ said the Master ‘that is true, but not my real point. The really important point is that if you don’t put the big rocks in first, they will never go in at all.’

And in today’s business world, with phones and emails and texts, being busy can take up all our time. If we want to achieve major change, and make big, important differences, we must regularly turn our phone off, shut down the email, and focus uninterrupted time on the big, different things we want to happen.