SST®
Newsletter
Winter 2004
New Contact Information for Tilden & Associates
New Address:
513 Shannon Lane,
State College,
PA
16803
New Phone
Number: 814 – 861 – 5100
The S Word
It is hard to
believe, but we have been doing the SST Newsletter for nearly seven years
now. In that period we have written more than eighty articles (you can tell I am
an Intuitive by the preference for approximations) on topics ranging from The
Art of Listening, to Typing Santa Claus, to the Top Ten Reasons
Why Sex and Selling are Alike1. Never have we had the
response to an article like we did to the last newsletter’s article on
“Stress”.
Many of the
responses were humorous like:
“I never met
stress I couldn’t manage with three martinis”
“I like to
exercise in a gym populated by young (members of the opposite sex, sic) wearing
spandex. It makes me feel younger and the stress starts to go away. Then I try
to stamp it out with cold beer.”
Putting good
humor aside just for a moment (after-all, in and of itself humor is a terrific
stress antidote) stress seems to be a dominant theme in the modern work place. I
believe the following are among the contributing factors:
Change
is stressful and there is a lot of it these days. We are changing jobs at an
unprecedented rate. Gone are the days of climbing the pyramid with one employer
and retiring with a gold watch. Instead, workers are in turmoil as their
employers merge, acquire, downsize or simply shutter their doors. Rather than
the stability of a work environment populated by the familiar faces, people are
changing all of the time. Being an “Old Timer” is now measured in months rather
than years. The trend in office space is away from stable environments decorated
with family photos to “Hoteling” where workers sign
up for a work space by the day, much like renting a hotel room.
Volume
of work for the survivors has increased as their peers
have been downsized. Simply, we have more to do with less support. Remember the
days when “secretaries” helped place and screen phone calls? Today it is rare
that I receive a call scheduled or placed by an executive’s administrative
assistant. Fifteen years ago it was routine.
Pace
of work has increased. Everyone seems to need more and
to want it faster.
Depersonalization
of the work environment is a side effect of
technology. Rather than walking down the hall and reviewing a request with a
co-worker, we shoot it off via e-mail. Gone is the face-to-face conversation
about the nature of the request, how important it might be and when it is
needed. Rather than hanging out by the water cooler and exchanging stories and
jokes, we now do it by e-mail.
In summary,
things are continuously changing, we have more to do in less time and there is
less interpersonal contact. All of this spells:
STRESS.
Stress is a
fact of life. We can’t make it go away. But, we can manage it. In our work as
executive coaches, we have found that effective sales people and their leaders
have some form of stress management plan in place.
If you don’t,
we would encourage you to be intentional about establishing one. The
University of
Wisconsin at
Stevens Point, long a leader in the wellness
field, has a nice on line resource where you can do a quick assessment of Stress
Sources, Distress Symptoms and Stress Balancing Strategies. (http://wellness.uwsp.edu/Health_Service/services/stress.htm)
We, of course,
offer a one-day Stress Management Workshop, the product of which is an
individualized Stress Management Plan. Happy to provide more detail if you are
interested.
Leadership Coaching
In the last
newsletter (http://tildensst.com/Fall2003/index.html) we dedicated a good chunk
of space to describing coaching we (PfP Partner, Harry Koolen and I) were doing
with the Adaptable Leader program which is anchored in the MBTI and FIRO
(Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientation) assessments. The premise of
our approach is that typical leaders tend to lead by what is natural for them to
express. Conversely, exemplary leaders adapt to each key person
they lead and customize multiple leadership strategies.
Looking ahead
into 2004, we anticipate doing well over 100 executive coaching assignments
employing the Adaptable Leader approach. We will be attuned to trends
and insights we hope to glean from this significant volume of coaching
opportunities.
Assessing Sales Talent
One of our
ongoing interests has been assisting clients in choosing sales talent
using standardized tests as a tool. We make a careful distinction between
talents and skills. The former are accidents of birth and, by and large, cannot
be learned. The latter can be taught and learned like product knowledge, asking
good questions and making presentations.
An important
mantra you have likely heard from us is to:
Recruit for talents
and train for skills
Working with
Ira Wolfe and his firm, Success Performance Solutions, we are conducting a
number of predictive validity studies where we will correlate standardized test
scores with actual sales performance. The results will help us along the way to
recommending a standardized assessment for which we have established the
validity to use in identifying candidates meeting the requisite talents in
the selection process.
Stay well. And,
stay tuned.
1These articles and many
more are archived at www.tildensst.com