GLOBAL COACHING LAB

Feb &MarNEWSLETTER

VI

LEADERSHIP INSIGHTSMPACT &

2018

Speak Less Mean More . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 The Missing Link in Sales Management. . . . . . . . 3The Power of Why. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4People and Culture Integration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

CONTENTS

“A genuine leader is not a searcher for

consensus but a older of consensus”

Martin Luther King, Jr.Illustration by Andrew Baker

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Dear Leaders,

Speak Less Mean More in a distracted world

It is my pleasure to be writing to you again with some fresh insights from our leadership and coaching engagements with individuals, teams and organizations.

I have noticed a general sense of distraction in peoples’ lives, which is leading to lessfulfillment and more restlessness. As a leader are you in this boat?

How can you achieve more through people and team work in a highly distracted (distractions through devices/ less attention spans) VUCA world?

Sripriyaa VenkataramanDirector Innovation and Partnerships

Best Regards,

Let’s visualize a communication scenario – Please reflect and think along with me

Have you observed that every time you are speaking / communicating with someone (either a colleague / team member / manager / friends or family), nowadays, there are very few times when we come out of a conversation where both parties have demonstrated 100% “Authegrity” (authenticity + integrity) to the conversation and its desired outcome.

Are you one of the leaders facing the distracted world and feeling less empowered to handle it? More so unable to articulate this restlessness. How should we handle this? Through our coaching and leadership experience, here is what has worked well for others:

Change the ratio of communication – 80 -20 80% focuses on others and the rest 20% is all about You speaking Less and Meaning More

How can you achieve that?

First, is by asking powerful questions in conversations we are able to break thought patterns that gives moments of reflections (pauses) that leads to deeper thinking and less distraction.

Second, is by building a powerful vocabulary that is simple yet sophisticated, that helps you create value in conversations. where there is value, there is less opportunity for distraction.

Third, is the interplay with the opposites –while speaking have opposites within the same sentence which creates a powerful impact on the listener which leads to deeper thinking and less distraction.

Fourth is balancing reason with emotion –Appealing to emotion requires no language and balancing it with the right choice of words, helps create more meaningful connections in conversations.

Fifth is affirmation and acknowledgement – it prepares the other person to listen.

I have personally seen a shift in my fulfillment level during my coaching conversations when I speak less and mean more. Leaders, do you feel motivated to shift your communications ratios?

Please do write to us on the results these practices have gotten for you.

This deal could make or break their Quarter! - I was accompanying Sam and his Account Executive (AE) to meet the customer as part of an effort for me to observe Coaching on the Field and to coach Sam on his ability to coach his team better.

As is typical of busy sales managers, Sam and his AE get down to discussing call objectives in the car ride to the customer. They tick off 3 points they want to cover:

Venkataraman SubramanyanCofounder, Director & Executive Coach

Best Regards,

1) Force the customer to take a decision this week 2) Throw in some discounting to sweeten the deal and3) Use the language of "license compliance" to force the customers' hand should they choose not

to close.

Observing this interaction, I was struck by how little had changed on the Field in the last two decades. The world may have moved on to Challenger Selling, but the behaviours on the Field were far from the behaviours that customer expect from Sales people nowadays. This last minute frenetic push to close, damages more relationships, and undoes all quality work put in priorAnd for me, this was a wonderful coaching moment:

"What value have we created with this customer, that will earn you the right to drive some momentum in this conversation?"

Both of them intellectually understood the impact of my question, and I could sense the emotional struggle in them. How do we balance the pressures of the "now" (Quota) with the unexplored possibilities of creating a differentiated customer experience?

I continued: "What should you be doing in this meeting today, so as to get the customer to say "That's the best one hour I have spent in the last 3 months!!"? Both of them smiled nervously - who cares about what the customer thinks; all I need is this deal to close”

On any given day, there are millions of such interactions that your sales people are conducting with their managers, and these interactions are the best time to engage in Just-in-time Field Coaching. If every powerful customer meeting is "3 parts preparation, and 1 part execution", how can your Sales Manager coach to the customer experience? In my mind, this is the missing piece in transforming behaviour on the Field - the ability to coach to the customer interaction.

I see a lot of organizations invest in Coaching - However, if this coaching does not land at the critical interfaces that creates value, coaching remains a theory and a process that managers pay lip service to. There are some progressive organizations that are now realizing the power of coaching on the Field - coaching to the preparation, coaching to the conversation, coaching to the outcomes, coaching to the behaviours, coaching to the upsell/cross sell, coaching to the orchestration between team members, coaching to creating customer consensus - the list goes on.

The moot question is - are you one of those organizations? Are you paying lip service to Coaching by teaching the process, or are you landing

Coaching on the Field at the interface that matters most - your customer!!

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Field CoachingThe missing link in Sales Management

I had listed in my personal development plan that Iwanted a coach. It gets lonely at the top as you riseup in your leadership levels. I was looking for asounding board for the challenges that I facing.

In my last role at at global Accounting and Advisoryfirm, we had many strong internal coaches.However I wanted an independent outside view,and someone who would not have theorganisational bias. I was thus connected withVenkat.

4

The Power of ‘Why’ in Gaining Clarity and Building Conviction

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The learnings of a Operations head at an advisory services firm through his coaching engagement with our Director and Executive Coach Venkataraman Subramanyan, helping him answer the question ‘Why am I doing what I am doing?”

Why do you want to do what you want to do?What can you do to get out of your current situation?

The global role that I was being offered, required strong Business Development. Through his experiences as a Leader in Sales, Venkat was quickly able to help me uncover my blind-spots. He guided me on what I should be thinking about – target audience, target market etc. As homework I had to work on a 30/60/90 day plan assuming I decided to take the offer. Over time I had jotted down some thoughts and ideas, but the new approach that Venkat suggested truly helped me structure my thoughts and uncertainties. I had the opportunity to actually imagine myself in the new role and see if that is the path I wanted to take.

I used the same method to evaluate a new opportunity that presented itself, with another firm. It was in the same field I was in and wished to continue. It was a smaller organization with a larger job scope. I was moving from more enabling focus to client and delivery focus which is what I wanted. Thus within the time my coaching sessions came to a close, I had decided my next steps to join the new organization. It has been more than six months now and I am truly happy with my decision.

Venkat’s guidance and coaching technique had a deep impact on me. I strongly believe that we all grow and learn by sharing. I was an internally certified coach in my previous organization and have been passionate about coaching. My experience with Venkat has enhanced my view of Coaching. I now understand the impact the right question can have to a person. I am looking forward to be a coach to more people in my new organization and hope to help them as Venkat impacted me!

My coaching experiencewith Venkat led me out ofmy company! During thecoaching sessions thatspanned over six months, Iwas able to take a bolddecision with lot moreclarity in what I wanted toachieve personally and

professionally. It helped me clear some of thecobwebs and see things from a differentperspective.

In retrospect it feels like a timely intervention. Iwas a a Career and developmental road block. Atthe back of my mind I was looking for some sort ofchange but never really acted on it. I had theopportunity to take a global assignment at mythen current company or move out, and I finallydecided to move out. Venkat was able to help melook through what I was doing then to what I whatI wanted to do. What stood out the most in thecoaching approach was the power of WHY. Asimple question asked in the right way at the right

time can make all the difference

5

People and Culture Integration

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Building a Vocabulary to Understand differences and leveraging on those difference to achieve more together – Team Coaching session

conducted by our Director and facilitator Venkataraman Subramanyan

The Technology Service verticals at at GlobalConsulting and audit firm were merged in order fortheir synergies to create better impact and outcomefor customers. While the business and financialjustifications for this divisional merger were veryclear, the new leader was not so sure about the levelof synergy that can be achieved between the twodifferent divisions.

They roped Venky in to help define a structure andframework for their People and Cultural Integration

After an initial diagnosis with key stakeholders, theengagement focused on four areas:

From the leader’s perspective they were now clearon who should be on the boat for the new team –They were able to clearly assess those who were notcommitted to the merger.

Discovering their levels of clarity andalignment to their new goals

Eliminating ambiguity and assumptions behind their goals and milestones

Openly discussing and addressing their fears, uncertainties and doubts behind their merger

Building a clear action plan to address the mojo gaps, metric gaps and execution gaps

They understood how every team member wasdifferent and how to leverage those differences tobuild a more effective combined team.

It is our belief that this new combined organizationis serving its clients much better, thus earning theirloyalty.

”Every team member felt relieved to have a safe

environment to voice their fears, uncertainties and

doubts. Moreover, they went back richer with the additional knowledge of their combined goals, execution plans, and

constraints for their business”

GLOBAL COACHING LAB

NEWSLETTER VI

LEADERSHIP INSIGHTSMPACT &

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As you are applying what you havelearnt, if there is anything youwantto talk about – insights, challengesplease feel free towrite tous.

Toshareyourexperiences& knowmoreabouthowwecanhelpyou,

contactus:

Our Website: www.globalcoachinglab.com

Email us at: leadershipsolutions@globalcoachinglab.com

Call us at: +65 9835 2891 (Singapore)+91 96508 43332 (India)

Feb &Mar2018

Special Edition