Needs Based Selling

Get to understand the customer by letting them speak -- at length, if necessary.

Simply put, needs-based selling means determining a customer's needs before you start to propose solutions. Get to understand the customer by letting them speak -- at length, if necessary. When it's time to present, you'll do a better job than those who merely display their products and services and you'll be far better positioned to sustain a long-term customer relationship.

ACTION POINT: Don't propose solutions until you understand your customers needs.

Addressing Needs

The process of selling requires careful planning and management.

Selling isn't a moment of inspiration; it is not about force of argument or the strength of your personality. It is a process. the process is fairly easy to understand, but -- as you'll see -- hard to do. The techniques in this series are centered around a process called needs-based selling, so let's examine its principles and set the scene.

The process of selling requires careful planning and management. Beginning a relationship with a new client is the first phase of the process: you can't just walk into a customer's office and kick off a sales meeting -- it needs careful staging, and both you and your customers need to be prepared.

Next, you start the most important part of the sales process -- determining the customer's needs. During this phase, you ask the key questions, listen to what the customer has to say, identify both the obvious and less obvious needs, enter into a meaningful dialogue, and review what you have learned. Needs determination drives everything in selling, and it is only once you have listened to your customer that you move on to the phase of the process that most salespeople enjoy the most: presenting their products and services. This is when you get to explain how you and your company can address your customer's needs. You know your products and services inside-out, and your customers want to hear how you can help them.

Once you have determined the needs and made recommendations, it is time to think about gaining commitment. But something almost always gets in the way -- and you face resistance to commit. The customer needs to be allowed to object -- even when they seem ready to buy -- and you must resolve the client's objections if you are to close the sale.

ACTION POINT: Understand the key steps in the selling process.

Selling Profile

...salespeople share some characteristics that make them more likely to succeed

There's no formula for a great salesperson -- they come from all walks of life and levels of society. However, salespeople share some characteristics that make them more likely to succeed:

• Willingness to take risks -- putting their own necks on the line and entering uncharted waters to come up with unique ideas.
• Generosity -- giving credit to others where deserved without reservation, and sharing credit without fear of diminishing individual contribution.
• A thick skin -- knowing how to deal with failure and understanding that even the best lose more often than they win. With experience, salespeople learn how to deal with inevitable negative responses to their ideas, as well as their own innate emotional responses to knock-backs.
• A methodical approach -- understanding that planning and follow-up are the keys to success.
• Resourcefulness -- constantly innovating and challenging the existing approaches. Salespeople work well in groups and make the most of the talent around them.
• Tenacity -- knowing that daunting problems cannot be tackled without effort and determination.

ACTION POINT: Determine how many of the above traits you posses. Develop the ones you don't.

The Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit

Fear of the Lord

The first gift the apostles received (referenced in Isaiah 11:2) was fear of the Lord.

There are two reasons to fear: out of punishment or out of love. If you love someone deeply, you do not want to hurt them in any way. You will do anything to avoid offending them. That's what fear of the Lord is: a childlike fear, rooted in love.

This fear of the Lord gave the apostles a deep knowledge of God as Father. They had the experience, through the power of the Spirit, of being sons of God, and they would do nothing to offend their Father. It drove them, and hopefully will drive us, to imitate the Father's mercy and compassion.

This spiritual gift informs us that God is truly our Father and enables us to look upon all mankind as brothers and sisters, children of the same Father. We have the same concern for our brothers and sisters as the Father has. Without taking this leap, taking this spiritual step, there can be no other. This gift enables us to rise above our human nature. It teaches us to love like God loves.

The fear of the Lord even elevates temptation. Temptation ceases to be negative, but becomes positive. You no longer think: I can't do this because I'll go to hell or I'll get caught. No. You now refrain from doing wrong because you love our Father and our Father would be displeased. It's about love and it frees you.

This gift of the fear of the Lord is like an aid to keeping the first commandment to love God the Father with our whole heart and mind and soul and strength.

Work Environment and People Development II

Unless a good work environment exists, good people will leave and mediocre will remain.

Good work environments are built by sincere positive encouragement and personal commitment. Absolute honesty and integrity must abound. We must get problems out in the open and solved. managers must be sincerely willing to listen to other people and willing to admit to being wrong when the facts show that is the case.

Unless a good work environment exists, good people will leave and mediocre will remain. An organization staffed with mediocrity is a certain loser.

Managers must ensure that people in the organization know exactly where they stand and what their career outlooks are at all times. This is very important.

ACTION POINT: Be a part of making the work environment good through personal commitment and positive encouragement.

The Evolving Selling Mentality

To succeed, you need to interpret what the client tells you, and often educate your customer about what's out there.

Being a successful salesperson today involves you in collaboration, facilitation, and a sense of partnership with your customer. Long gone are the days of one-way persuasion -- the canned pitch is considered the lowest level of selling. Ideas about selling have evolved rapidly as globalization and fast communication have produced more savvy and demanding buyers. Selling reflects wider changes in business and today goes far beyond pushing product, embracing an understand of how organizations work, management structures, psychology, and self-awareness.

In the past, a salesperson could get by through eloquently telling the customer everything he or she knew about their product, and explaining why their company was the best in its field. This approach may still win you business today in some areas, but most customers now demand much more from their salespeople. they expect them to add value to their business -- to understand fully their needs and to offer up solutions to problems they didn't even realize they had. To succeed, you need to interpret what the client tells you, and often educate your customer about what's out there. Then you need to mesh together the abilities of your organization with that of the client for the benefit of both. You need a measure of curiosity and good listening skills to uncover what the client really needs. and you must be a brilliant innovator, with the ability to think creatively and manage creative processes that find answers.

ACTION POINT: Don't limit yourself to thinking about only your products and services -- your customers need your creativity to help solve their problems.

Building Meaningful Relationships

Offering good products at competitive prices just isn't enough to win sales in today's competitive market.

People buy from people whom they like, respect, and trust, so selling is really about building and managing relationships. The first step is to find out what your customers expect and demand, and what you need to do to respond accordingly.

Offering good products at competitive prices just isn't enough to win sales in today's competitive market. You can bet that your best ideas will be emulated by others sooner or later. Today's customers expect you to add value to their business - to address their needs an deliver solutions.

ACTION POINT: Focus on adding value to your relationships.

Selling

Selling is all about combining a set of attitudes, behaviors, and skills in a way that forges long-term relationships with customers.

Selling is a time-honored profession and one that constantly moves with, and adapts to, broader changes in business practice, human interactions, and psychology. Selling is also -- as every salesperson will tell you -- the cutting edge of every business. Without the eyes, ears, and intuition of a good salesperson, the business itself founders.

Every good salesperson knows their products inside and out -- whether these are paper clips, aircraft engines, or consultancy services - and can present them capably to their customers. However, a great salesperson does so much more. He or she understands the customers' needs and brings a problem-solving mentality and real creativity to all interactions.

Selling is all about combining a set of attitudes, behaviors, and skills in a way that forges long-term relationships with customers -- relationships that add value to the customer's business and that yield not just one deal, but many.

Despite some bad press over the years, selling is a worthy profession. The goal of this series is to open your mid in a way that helps you approach selling in a very different way and that introduces you to skills you must demonstrate every day.

ACTION POINT: Study the profession of selling.

Staying On Top

...it is about making a conscious choice to create your future.

Strategy is not about devising and implementing a linear path toward one particular outcome -- it is a way of thinking that must be in the forefront of your mind as you observe the world around you, and it must permeate every decision you make. It may take time to adopt a strategic way of thinking, but once you do it will become second nature.

At its heart, strategic thinking is very simple. In fact, it is as simple as one, tow, three: One, where are we now? Two, where do we want to go? and three, how do we get there? It is within the role of any team leader, manager, small business owner, or organizational leader to know their current situation and what they want to achieve in the next three to five years, and to work with others to reach that goal. However, strategy is not about designing a map for the future and then setting it in stone -- it is a dynamic process that defines a broad path along which you and your organization or team will achieve success.

You must always be thinking strategically. When something unexpected happens, your first thought should be " how does this affect our strategy?" and you must be ready to reevaluate or change strategy if you need to. Even once you have implemented a strategy and achieved the outcome you were hoping for, you must fight the thought that you can simply do the same again and still be successful. The world around you -- the context in which you are making strategic decisions -- never stays still. Stay alert to your changing environment and always look for new and better options. Strategic management is not about making continuous knee-jerk reactions to a series of unconnected events -- it is about making a conscious choice to create your future.

ACTION POINT: Develop and practice the habit of thinking strategically.

Work Environment and People Development

We must place great importance on the personal lives and character of our employees


A healthy work environment creates a good foundation that permits people to work effectively, develop themselves, and achieve their aspirations. The good manager places strong emphasis on creating a good work environment.

Is the daily focus on real work or on psycho-politics? Which gets more attention office politics and employee feuds or things such as marketing, planing,and production. Regardless of the goals, the problem is all organizations are social systems plagued with all the imperfections associated with human beings. While people set out to cooperate as a team moving toward the corporate goals, people want to control their own destiny and people have problems. These problems do more to squelch real work than anything else in the work environment.


Anxiety is one of these human imperfections. Anxiety is that awful feeling in the pit of our stomach when uncertainty reigns and the fear of the future abounds. People don't tolerate anxiety well. Good managers work quickly to resolve this problem.


The condition of ones self-esteem is also powerfully at work. It can be a stabilizer or your emotional buzz-saw. We must destroy the age old myth - I can build myself up by tearing him down.


The ever present "personal problem" also greatly affects how we work. One can only focus on so many things. Which problem do you think is at the top of the priority list, how to increase production or ones personal problem? We must place great importance on the personal lives and character of our employees and certainly potential employees.


The manager must work hard in this area. We must be sensitive. The goal is to drive real work while diminishing political aspirations, occupational sparring and relational problems.


We should teach that self-development and positive contribution are the route to freedom from anxiety and to positive self-esteem. We should teach that good relationships are established and nourished by giving, not taking.


ACTION POINT: Create a good work environment and encourage the self development of your team.

Capturing Knowledge

The key to making knowledge-management systems work is cultural

As a part of the implementation phase of your strategy, put in place a system to make the most of the valuable knowledge within your organization. The main function of this system is to capture important knowledge and store it in a form that you can easily access in the future. You can store it simply on paper or in files, or in electronic documents or knowledge-management software.

Tailor the system you use to the importance of the information you are storing. For example, firms for which knowledge is of great advantage, such as international law firms, often invest a considerable amount of money in bespoke knowledge - management systems; smaller firms can achieve good results with word-processing and spreadsheet software.

The key to making knowledge-management systems work is cultural -- you need to create an environment in which sharing knowledge is both encouraged and rewarded.

ACTION POINT: Encourage and reward the sharing of knowledge.

Types of Knowledge

Tacit knowledge is instinctive or learned

Knowledge is divided into two classes: explicit or tacit. Explicit knowledge is knowledge that is easy to write down and transfer to other people: the process to be followed in producing a customer invoice, for example, or the way to assemble five components to build a product.

Tacit knowledge, by comparison, is knowledge that is not easily passed on. A flute player, for example, can tell someone else how to position their fingers to make each note, but not how to bring it all together in giving a fine performance. Tacit knowledge is instinctive or learned through years of experience, and it cannot be passed on quickly or sometimes even at all.

ACTION POINT: Capture your explicit knowledge, capitalize on your tacit knowledge.

Managing Knowledge

important knowledge that can give a competitive advantage exists within all organizations

The implementation of a new strategy is an uncertain time -- you have made changes and your team are having to deal with new challenges. Some people may decide to leave, and if they do, any knowledge they have -- knowledge that could give you a competitive advantage -- will leave with them and be lost to your organization.

In some types of business, it is easy to see where knowledge is a source of competitive advantage. An accountant who has superior knowledge of taxation, for example, is best placed to save their clients money. However, important knowledge that can give a competitive advantage exists within all organizations. You may have someone who recognizes the best-quality fish on the market and buys it at the best price, or someone who has superior knowledge of donors and can attract income to a charity. As a strategic manager, it is important to look at your team and others in your organization and identify who has important knowledge, so that you can make sure that you keep it during strategic change.

ACTION POINT: Build a team that has specialists with specific important knowledge for your business.

Maintaining Morale

Reaching each target can give a great sense of satisfaction to your staff and help to inspire confidence.

Measuring your progress toward targets has the additional benefit of boosting staff morale. You already know that change may involve a period of uncertainty for all. You role as a confident and visible leader through strategic change can be enhanced by setting realistic targets and then collectively achieving them.

Reaching each target can give a great sense of satisfaction to your staff and help to inspire confidence. For example, if you set an interim target for your team to decrease their processing time by 4 percent during year one and they achieve a figure of 4.5 percent, they are more likely to give that little bit extra in the following years to help you reach your overall objective.

Measure progress with the following:

• Identify the final target of your strategic plan -- what are you aiming to achieve, and by when.
• Identify important targets along the way, and key turning points along the journey.
• If your targets or milestones are far apart, look for intermediary targets.
• Put in place a system to report the progress toward each target.
• When you achieve a target, share it with your team and celebrate success.

ACTION POINT: Keep your team motivated by celebrating milestones when they are achieved.

Planning and Execution

Strategy must result in giving the customers better value than the competitors do.

Establishing a solid strategic direction is critical. Therefore, it is the prime responsibility of management. Our strategy must take into account the industry, the customer, the competitive environment and lead to innovation. We must recognize that our competitive edge today won't be tomorrow. We must constantly search out new sources of competitive advantage.

We must regard competitive weaknesses in our products, services, and support as a crisis. Closing the gaps must become top priority. Strategy must result in giving the customers better value than the competitors do. We must be personally committed to serving customers better and providing them better products. Strategy, if complete, must result in taking the competitive advantage to market quickly; frankly charging forward with these promising ideas and "new-found" approaches.

The business plan or strategy must be in writing or it has no value. Regardless of its complexity, a good plan properly thought through can be put down to a few paragraphs, not pages. It only becomes useful if it can be grasped in a few minutes.

Fact based decisions are crucial to good planning. However, what is presented as facts frequently turns out to be only: apparent facts, assumed facts, reported facts, hoped-for facts. A really good manager can distinguish the difference between real and not real facts.

A commitment to achieving plans is essential to successful execution. Managers should never be pressured into making unrealistic commitments, but once commitments are made they should always be fulfilled. To many broken commitments creates a sloppy attitude in the organization that permits rationalization of failure.

ACTION POINT: Plan and execute innovation.

Setting Targets

think about where you are going, what it is going to take to get there, and when you aim to achieve your goals.

When setting targets, think about where you are going, what it is going to take to get there, and when you aim to achieve your goals. If your strategic goal is to grow your position within the market by 40 percent, for example, you might set the goal of 15 percent growth each year.

Alternatively, you might set an increased sales target of five percent in year one and 30 percent in the next year following the acquisition of a competitor. if your strategy is for your team to have a more central role with extended responsibilities in three years, you might set targets of hiring one new person with different skills in year one and two more staff in each of the following years. Or, you might measure the flow of work on a monthly basis to check the increase in volume and type of work. Whatever measures you choose, they will help you to check that you are still on track.

ACTION POINT: Establish steps tied to time lines to measure your progress.

Monitoring Progress

Strategy is about the future, and despite your best attempts to analyze what might happen, you don't have any certainty that the future will be as you have predicted.

You have been through the process: you've analyzed yourself, the environment, and the market; you've assessed your options and planned your approach; and you've started to implement your strategic plan. You will not know the final outcome for three to five years -- are you going to wait that long to see if you are on the right track?

Strategy is about the future, and despite your best attempts to analyze what might happen, you don't have any certainty that the future will be as you have predicted. There are likely to be changes to the environment (such as economic issues or new technology) and to the market - new competitors or products could remove your market, for example.

You may also have unexpected internal issues in your organization. It is crucial, therefore, that you monitor your progress, by setting targets to be achieved and milestones that must be passed, if you are to ensure that your strategy remains on course to deliver the desired outcome.

ACTION POINT: Understand strategy change requires time and the monitoring of progress to ensure you stay on course.

Tolerating Mistakes

...you need to create an environment in which mistakes are tolerated in the early days of a new strategy.

It is important to realize that, as people move out their comfort zone, they may make more mistakes than usual. However, if you punish someone who has made a genuine mistake when trying to act in a new way, he or she is likely to stop trying new things. Instead you need to create an environment in which mistakes are tolerated in the early days of a new strategy. This will take courage on your behalf, as you are responsible for the actions of your staff, but it will lead to greater success, lower staff turnover, and less resistance to change in the long run.

Sometimes it is not what is said to you but what is not said that sends the most powerful message, so try to look out for any unspoken signs that a member of your team is struggling. Periodically ask your team members whether you are giving the support they need.

ACTION POINT: Exercise patience when starting a change.

Recognizing Success

A simple "well done or "thank you" may be sufficient to boost the morale of individual team members

As part of the review progress, take time to assess and acknowledge what each individual is doing well. This is important, because it can be difficult for members of your team to know whether they have changed their behavior in the right way unless someone tells them that what they are doing is right. If a person doesn't receive these positive encouragements they may be unsure and are likely to feel unsatisfied (given their extra efforts) or may even drift back to doing things the old way. Your role as a manager is to encourage and reward every individual within your team for doing new things right. The effect of these positive words or rewards is to recognize and reinforce the desired new behaviors your new strategy requires.

A simple "well done or "thank you" may be sufficient to boost the morale of individual team members, but you can also use more structured ways to mark success. If you measure your collective progress toward goals and targets, for example, you can then directly reward team members for achieving these milestones (either individually or collectively).

ACTION POINT: Measure progress and reward success with encouragement as well as in tangible ways where appropriate.

Elfriede Henrietta Woelk Byrne

March 11, 1926 - February 2, 2010

I recently asked my mom what her earliest memory was. “When I was about three or four, I used to go outside and braid the tall grass together, pretending I was dressing hair” she said. I loved hearing about her memories. She had lived a fascinating life. Born in East Prussia, one of eight children, she was there when a dictator ruled her country and led them into world war.

She had lots of stories. Stories from her early years of watching her mother cook, helping her father with the garden or watching him kill the chickens and pigs for their meals. She spoke of wrestling with her brothers and sisters while her parents laughed and stealing the sweets her mother had made for Christmas. She remembered sneaking cigarettes from her father and hiding out back with her sisters to smoke them.

She had lots of memories. Her teenage years were spent working at a German Air Force hospital as a nurse’s aid. Sneaking to the basement with her girlfriend to have Schnapps with the German officers and running to the bomb shelter when the air raid sirens would alarm filled the moments of those years with what she said were some of the most exciting and fun times of her life.

The war scattered her family and she met and fell in love with an Irish man in the British army. Post war life was filled with rebuilding; reuniting with her family and getting married. She buried twins and then my sister was born. In 1954, my dad said they were going to America. She didn’t want to leave but her mother told her to follow her man. She did. She came across the Atlantic by ship and learned English by going to school with my sister when she was in first grade and then watching American television.

She had two more children and buried another and built a family, a home and life. She was strong, fearless, and playful. She intensely loved her family. She taught me about work and how to behave even when I didn’t want to learn. She made me weed and mow the yard and then got the neighbor to hire me to do the same. My sisters had to clean house and make the beds. When I was 12 she made me get a paper route and then took most of the money I earned. She gave it to me when I was 16 so I could buy a car.

She liked to work and play. She worked for Avis returning rental cars to Chicago and never missed a chance to stop at the horse track on the way back. She loved Saturday night poker with friends and family vacations. She told us every family vacation that she was never bringing “you kids” again, but she always did. Her and my dad would take turns driving on those trips and my mom would be the one inching the speed up on the highway to the point where my dad would have to say Elfi, slow down. She was the one that taught me to drive. On trips to the west, if we got anywhere near Nevada my dad would often have to drag her kicking and screaming across the state line to get her away from the slot machines and blackjack tables that she loved.

After my dad died she worked at a factory, a school and a hospital and then retried. After she retired she spent time with her family, watching grand kids, or coming over to our house and scrubbing down the outside with a bucket of soap and a broom. Her grand kids loved her and their friends thought Grandma Byrne was a hoot. They would squeal and laugh every time they heard her say “Komm mal here you little schitt!” She had a sweet tooth and wanted all of the grandkids to have one as well. She had a way with names. When we were about to be blessed with our first son we were struggling with names. It was Grandma that said, What about Nathan? It just seemed to fit. Other names of grandkids and friends became a either a blend of Germenglish, Jacobla, Hanala, Maargritte, Ikey, and Joshma or nicknames, like Schmiley Face and Angel Face. And her great grandson Antonio some how became the Tomster.

I was simply her son.

Those were the last words she ever said to me. I walked into her hospital room that last Sunday and she looked up and said “Oh, mine son”. I stayed with her. I cried.

She used to sing a German lullaby to my kids, “Hiedchi Bon Biedchi Bom Bom,,” That last day, that song came out of my heart and went back to her as I quietly sang it to her. I held her hand and she slept. When it was time to go she looked up at me. We shared a moment of sadness and knowing it was the last time we would see each other in this life. She died on Tuesday. I knew it was coming, but I didn’t know it would hurt so badly. I’m thankful for all of those Saturday’s and the talks, stories and memories, most of all I’m thankful I was her son.

Americans say Goodbye, In Germany they say Auf Wiedersehen, literally "on again seeing". I like that better than goodbye.

Auf Wiedersehen Mom,

Staffing and Personnel - People

People make the organization succeed or fail.

People make the organization succeed or fail. Because of this we will put a limit on tolerance of moderate or poor producers. Experience tells that we kid ourselves into thinking that allowing the individuals to continue things will change. That's usually wrong. Basic character or personality faults and skill deficiencies most often don't get correct with time. However, fairness and compassion are necessary. Management should help the person preserve both dignity and employ ability.

All managers should have backup people who are potentially better qualified for their jobs than they are themselves. Not manager has the right to feel he or she has done a good job if a logical successor is not being trained and nurtured.

Every manager in the organization must make certain that individuals know what is expected of them, how their assignments fit into the whole, and how their performance will be measured. Each individual should have a set of goals and deadlines to meet. We believe strong organizations have strong goals. Once the goal is achieved, we always set the next goal higher.

Our system of rewards and penalties must be consistent. The payoff should always be for achieving results, not for making the effort. Those who perform well should get recognition and rewards. Those who don't must learn to expect limited reward, lesser responsibilities, and even dismissal.

We must be alert to misfits. Not matter how carefully people are screened or evaluated, misfits will show up. Quick decisive action is needed to weed them out. People always know who they are and draw negative conclusions about their managers who permit them to remain. Three types of misfits that are especially damaging to the organization are:

• those who don't have integrity or honesty to win trust, who don't give recognition to subordinates for ideas and accomplishments.
• those politicians who always have their finger in the air to see which way the wind blows, and who are interested more in who's watching then in just plain hard work.
• bullies who are just plain bastards to their subordinates.

ACTION POINT: Invest time and energy into the people.

Reviewing Progress

Once you see individuals in action in their new roles, you can offer guidance on how they can do things better.

Telling someone how to swim and them being able to swim are different things; it isn't until they jump into the water that you and they know whether they have understood your instruction. The same is true when you implement a new strategy. Once you see individuals in action in their new roles, you can offer guidance on how they can do things better.

Set aside time on a regular basis to meet with members of your team and review their progress on a one-to-one basis. Use this time to assess their performance against targets you have set an discuss any problems they are having in adjusting to their new role.

ACTION POINT: Observe action and review progress to keep change on track.

Guiding your Team

Your role is to be their "coach"

Some managers think that setting the strategic direction and preparing their team for change is sufficient, but to get the best out of your team you need to provide guidance as the change progresses. Your role is to be their "coach" -- to review their progress, help them to find ways to perform their new tasks better, offer encouragement and reward success.

Ask your self, am I supporting my staff in their new roles?

• Have I been clear in helping my team understand what needs to happen to deliver the new strategy?
• Have my team confirmed that they understand their new roles?
• Have I scheduled time to monitor the team as it move forward?
• Have I set aside time to make myself available to answer questions and to provide reassurance?
• Have I ensured that the organizational systems that are in place encourage the new behaviors necessary to implement the change, and will not drag the team back into their old ways?
• Have I devised ways in which to reward success?

ACTION POINT: Engage your team through coaching to provide guidance.

Overcoming Resistance II

Provide reassurance that the future, under the new strategy, will be better than the present.

Resistance to change can be expected. The following will minimize resistance to change.

• Provide information. Give detailed reasons for why the change needs to happen, and encourage question of the situation.
• Encourage involvement. Where possible, involve individuals in the development your strategy -- they are more likely to accept it if they have played a part in its creation.
• Engineer the situation. Create a "crisis" to encourage closer teamwork -- in crisis people usually stop silly arguments and work together on the main task.
• Provide training. Offer training and coaching where appropriate, so that all individuals are confident in any new roles they have to perform.
• Work with the group. Provide facilitation where group resistance is a problem, and work individually with members of the group.
• Tackle fear. Provide reassurance that the future, under the new strategy, will be better than the present.

ACTION POINT: Overcome the fear of change through involvement, training, teamwork and information.

Overcoming Resistance

Resistance can also stem from individuals asking "what's in it for me?" before thinking " why is it good for the organization?"

Change is often "logically" prepared by managers and leaders but responded to emotionally by staff. Negative reactions to change often result form a lack of understanding of shy it has to happen -- the need for the change may not have been sufficiently well explained or staff may have received misinformation through gossip or leaks. Resistance can also stem from individuals asking "what's in it for me?" before thinking " why is it good for the organization?"

In many organizations, there are political forces at work. Groups of people may have different priorities and will seek their own outcome rather than the desired outcome of the organization. If you don't have power to influence these groups yourself, try to win the support of those who do.

Some of your strategic decisions may result in some people losing their jobs. It would be easy to assume that those who didn't are automatically happy. However, some argue that this is not the case and that those who survive feel uncertain or negative about the organization (some refer to this as survivor syndrome), thinking: "If they let my friend go this time, will it be me next time?" What is certain, however, is that staff will make a judgement about how the change happened and whether you behave fairly. If they believe you did, they are more likely to continue to support you.

ACTION POINT: Understand that there will be negative reactions to change.