The customers of your management service pay with effort and loyalty. The better service you provide, the more they will pay.

So ask people individually how they want you to provide your management service to them, and experiment with different ways of providing the service and see what works best.

Ultimately, the consumers of your management service are the ones who get to decide if your management service is quality, or not. And you will know by how much they ‘pay’ you.

My best wishes, Paul
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However, the best leaders expect better control will come as a by-product of achieving more influence.

Control is “in the moment” and must be continuously applied, but influence not only controls “this moment”, it helps to control the “future moments” as well.

Focus on influence and you gain even better control.

Over the long term, which do you think is easier; control or influence?

What about you? Do you control your people to do what you want, and get compliance, or do you influence them to do what you want, and get buy-in?

Here are some tips on the role of rapport in influencing people.

My best wishes, Paul
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Now that really got me thinking!

What do you think it means to you?

What stream are you in?

Where is it going?

Do you just want to go where the stream takes you, or do you have your own ideas on your future?

Are you dead and drifting with the current, or alive and moving with purpose?

What do you really want?

Click here for some ideas you will find upstream.

My best wishes, Paul
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You know, the kind of work that generates comments like
“No-one ever looks at these reports”
“Now we have to do it all over again”
“This is never going to work”
“That was a waste of time”
“We’ve got more important things to do”
“They changed their mind again, so all that work we just did is no good”
“Never time to do it right, but we have to find time to do it over again”

Are they right? Is it low value?

If they are right, work with them to find a way to get rid of the work. Maybe improve the processes, get better clarity from the customer (internal or external), do better planning and so on.

If they are wrong and it is high value work, help them understand why it is high value. They need to know, or they will never engage with the work or bother doing it well.

Click here for some tips on process improvement.

My best wishes, Paul
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Problems start when you try to keep all those rules in your head at the same time – thus the golf saying, “paralysis by analysis”. In management, as in golf, the greats make it all look effortless, which only adds to the sense of mystery and frustration for those who struggle to get better.

So pick one thing at a time and get better at that. Practice until it gets to be an unconscious competence, until it becomes as easy as tying your shoelaces.

What will you commit to practice this week?

How will you practice it?

What difference will you see, hear or feel when you get better at it?

Stuck on what to practice? Click here for suggestions.

My best wishes, Paul
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How often have you been surprised at what a friend or colleague thinks of you?

So actively seek out more feedback to help increase your self-awareness, to broaden your vision of yourself.

With self-awareness, and a little introspection, comes a better understanding of what you can work on to improve yourself, so you feel better, and others think better of you.

For your own sake, seek out more feedback this week.

Here is how to do it.

My best wishes, Paul
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Why?

Because you will start to see the world in the way they do, and you will develop the same strengths and behaviours. Their constant example will spur you on, and that will lead to you getting the kind of results they get in life.

So who do you know who is a role model?

What action can you take to spend time with them?

Buy them lunch, read stuff they have written, ask them for help.
Or simply walk up to them and say that you admire how they live their life and you would like to learn from them.

Go on. What have you got lose?

And what have you got to gain?

My best wishes, Paul
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When was the last time you finished a job, especially a job that was difficult to do, or a job that you were reluctant to start, or a job that was boring?

What did that feel like?

How much better would you perform if you started the job in that state?

So as you face a difficult job, imagine what it will be like when you finish it.

Really feel the reward of getting it done successfully.

Now in that heightened state of success, and knowing that you can do it, get stuck in.

You will be surprised at how the job flows so much more easily.

Click here for more tips on how to motivate yourself.

My best wishes, Paul
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It’s easy for people to agree on a common way forward, but it is the commitment that powers everyone to do whatever is necessary to make it happen.

Leaders foster commitment.

In your meetings, focus on gaining commitment, not just agreement.

Committed people take action, and delight in doing so.

For more on employee engagement, click here.

My best wishes, Paul
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A few days later I spoke with some colleagues about someone we had just met, and we were deciding whether to do business with him. The outcome was that we will not be dealing with him in the future. This was much more because of our impression of him as a person rather than the offer on the table.

“Your Brand is What People Say About You When You’re Not in the Room” Jeff Bezos, Founder of Amazon

What impression do you leave by how you act, what you say, and what can be found online about you?

You really DO need to know who you are when you are not there.

You see, people don’t interact with you. They interact with their perception of you. They interact with what they see as your personal brand, even when you are right in front of them.

Think about what that means to you, and to them, and to your relationships.

What do you want your reputation to be?

My best wishes, Paul
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