Tag Archives: Business Plan

July 23, 2012 · 1:39 pm

Cultivating and Sustaining a Creative, Organizational Culture, Part III

Key Concept ~ Here’s part three in a series of excerpts from my book, “The Transformational Entrepreneur ~ Engaging The Mind, Heart & Spirit For Breakthrough Business Success”, that explore the nuanced challenge of cultivating a vibrant, inclusive organizational culture in today’s volatile world.

~ Empathy

The authentic expression of empathy contributes to our presence and is capable of re-engaging disaffected associates.  Most of us, at one time or another, have worked for companies and bosses that used us for their own personal gain.  I have.  Not a lot of fun.  The conditioned behavior of caution, of keeping our heads down and not fully and openly offering all of our gifts and talents to the endeavor is a natural result of these past experiences in the workplace.  Words alone cannot heal these wounds.  After all, language only represents approximately ten percent of how we communicate with other beings.  Empathy comes directly from the heart and radiates an unspoken energy that is felt by those we encounter, whether they are immediately conscious of it or not.  In a way, it’s the energetic acknowledgement that we’re all connected and share in a common human experience.  By being sensitive to the emotions of others, empathy communicates authentic concern for another person’s well being.

I discovered a powerful metaphor for authentic presence while working with Linda Kohanov and the Epona herd of horses at her ranch in Arizona.  One of the early phases of the Epona Approach™ involves an exercise called the reflective round pen.  As prey animals, horses are natural empaths; they acutely feel the emotions and intention of those around them.  They sense emotion as information, information they receive from the intelligence centers in their enormous hearts and guts.  This is an evolutionary survival mechanism in prey animals.  They don’t stop to mentally analyze or judge these messages.  To pause and think about what they’re feeling may lead to their becoming a predator’s next meal.

Horses trust these messages and act without hesitation.  The empathic powers of horses are so finely tuned that when they encounter a human that is incongruent (displaying behavior that doesn’t match their intention) the horse will quietly walk away.  They feel beyond the masks we humans so often wear with each other.  Conversely, if the horse feels a person is congruent with their emotions, good, bad, or, indifferent, they will join up with them.  People are very similar.    Leaders that are capable of maintaining presence and radiate congruency of intention and emotion will see their constituents wanting to join up with them as well.

Linda prepares the person for the reflective round pen exercise with a horse by having the person conduct a body scan; a self-reflective process aimed at reconnecting the person with the intelligence centers that exist in their body as well as their head.  It is an exercise in presence that enables the participant to focus on what they are feeling within their entire being, reconnecting with the messages our body is continuously attempting to send us.  By connecting with our whole body intelligence we can begin to get out of our head and into our heart, recognizing what we are feeling and allowing the messages these emotions are attempting to convey to us.  It really is the first step in developing self mastery, being completely present within one’s self.  Self-awareness opens the mind to see through eyes of others.

My first experience with the reflective round pen offered several powerful revelations.  First, when I conducted my body scan (I actually envision a conscious form of an MRI scanning down my body) I noticed tension in my shoulders.

Linda instructed me to acknowledge and expand this feeling and to “breathe into that sensation, sending it oxygen and awareness.  Ask it what information it’s holding for you and be open to how your body may speak to you.”

Being a novice with horses I was a bit tense as I prepared to enter a sixty foot round pen with a 2,200 pound black Percheron named Kairos.  As I followed Linda’s instructions I sensed the tension in my shoulders inform me to just relax…just be.  The moment I acknowledge this message and spoke it out loud the tension dissipated instantly.  (This is a consistent occurrence using this practice.  My firm, Performance Transformation, employs this experiential learning approach in our various leadership, sales, and team building workshops.  We witness this release in more than 90% of our participants.)

I entered the round pen embodying this message, to relax and simply be present.  As I did, Kairos approached me, his giant hoofs gently puffing up dust as the physical and energetic space between us narrowed.  Before I knew it, his soft nose was touching my forehead, his deep, solemn breath washing over my face; in fact washing over my entire being.  We began to move together around the pen in delicate synchronization.  Neither he nor I was leading.  Neither he nor I was following.  Somehow we were perfectly connected in co-creative relationship, entirely in the moment.  Our movements anticipated one another’s as we stepped around the pen, side by side, without judgment or mental noise, profoundly connected in a place of peacefulness and trust.

What I had discovered was that by connecting with my embodied intelligence I had truly aligned with my self.  A moment of authentic presence emerged and my ability to empathically connect with another sentient being flowed effortlessly.  It seemed that Kairos and I felt each other’s presence so clearly we were able to connect on a majestically beautiful and inspirational level.  Neither of us attempted to dominate the other, we could simply move in the moment with grace and dignity.

The analogy of what I had experienced in leading the European business team those many years ago was not lost upon me.  I had entered into the leadership relationship with an open mind and, perhaps more importantly, an open heart.  I did not judge their ways of doing business as worse or better than corporate’s perspective.  It was simply their way of doing things that suited their markets and environment.  I genuinely cared about their success and empowered them to co-create the relationship resulting in a level of acceptance and respect that still resonates with me today.

Some of us are natural empaths; capable of feeling the emotional energy of those we encounter.  This can be as much of a curse as it is a blessing.  Humans that are highly sensitive to these emissions can actually be overwhelmed by the emotions of those they encounter.  We’ve all experienced this on some level.  Think back to a moment when you may have encountered someone experiencing significant inner conflict; you most likely recoiled from that person without even being conscious as to why you reacted this way.  You simply knew you wanted to put space between you and that person.

While it can be challenging, natural empaths are well served by learning to discern the emotional energy of others from their own.  Conversely, those of us that are less aware of the emotional energy surrounding us are capable of learning how to calibrate our sensitivity to others.

I learned this while working on the empathy education company project I mentioned earlier in this book.  The company used scenario-based learning for clinical health care professionals to elevate their ability to express empathy towards people and family members experiencing a health crisis.

There is a significant difference between simply being present, expressing authentic empathy, and trying to fix the person or situation.  As we learned during this project, this is an exceptionally difficult delineation for health care providers and people drawn to serve others.  They are attracted to their profession by their desire to heal people, to ease their suffering by fixing their ailment.  It is difficult for them to accept there are certain situations they cannot fix, and attempting to do so beyond a certain point communicates a paternalistic, almost patronizing message to people in deep emotional pain.

What we discovered was the clinicians needed to learn to let go of this attitude and accept, what in their conditioned, well trained terms is considered defeat.  In other words, accept things exactly as they are.  The kindest and most conscientious expression they can offer at that point is empathy.  In certain situations they can no longer heal the body yet they can still help heal the spirit.

The lesson here is that empathy does not require action, only presence, authentic listening, and the allowance of space for emotional processing.  Simply being sensitive to the situations of those around us and quietly acknowledging what they may be experiencing is an expression of empathy.  We all experience ups and downs in our personal lives.  If leadership wants associates to be truly engaged, they must recognize these trials and tribulations will inevitably follow people into the workplace.  Authenticity recognizes emotions, both highs and lows, as part of being whole and present.

© 2011 – 2012, Performance Transformation, LLC™.  All Rights Reserved.

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June 20, 2012 · 10:47 am

Understanding the Real Cost of Field Sales Professionals

Key Concept ~ Congratulations!  You’ve reached sufficient traction in your burgeoning business to hire your first field sales team.  You know it’s an expensive move, but a necessary step in the scaling of your business.  But are you sure of what the real costs are of deploying field sales teams?  Here are some insights from a project I did a few years ago that shed some well needed light on field sales, and the critical nature of mindfully leading your investment.

Several years ago, I was consulting on business strategy with a custom sales company called SalesForce4Hire®, LLC.  I worked with them to help develop something we called Sales Prototyping®.  Every company in the world prototypes a product before bringing it into production and the market, but rarely, if ever, did we witness companies prototyping their sales process.  The company’s focus is primarily in the medical device space, so a typical sales launch from a traditional company would put upwards of 28 sales reps in the field to launch a new device.  This provides ample coverage of the key population centers, and associated physicians and hospitals, around the country.  This also represents an investment of around $5 million per year!

As we were refining our strategy, positioning and value proposition, I dug into the research to try to determine the true, albeit hidden cost, of field sales personnel in the industry.  As I waded through the research, I was astonished at the inefficiencies that exists in many sales organizations.  Two things immediately jumped off the pages of the research.  First, industrial, business-to-business sales representatives take a lot of office days.  With technology being what it is today, this, to me at least, seemed excessive.  The second issue was how much time was wasted in sales meetings.  Again, with the online meeting capabilities combined with the mobility enabled by smart phones and tablets, this seemed excessive.  Between the two, 98 days a year are spent out of the field!  That’s twenty work weeks out of the year or 40% of the available selling days per annum (including a two week vacation, but not including holidays).  Forty percent of the company’s investment of $5 million for their sales team is $2 million!

So out of the 132 remaining sales days, how much time do field sales representatives actually spend in face-to-face selling time?  According to the research, the typical field sales rep is spending somewhere between two and three hours a day actually selling to prospects (and let’s hope they’re true prospects).  This is primarily due to poor planning resulting in excessive windshield time.  You’d think with the 78 days of office time taken, sales reps would be more efficient once they got their butts out the door.  What we’re left with is somewhere between 33 and 50, eight hour days, of face-to-face selling time for a typical field deployed, industrial sales representative, per annum.

Now, let’s get down to the brass tacks of the real cost of field sales.  I’m going to use a fully burdened, annual cost per sales rep of $100,000 per year (this is conservative in many industries, as the annual cost can easily run upwards of $120,000 to $140,000 per year, depending on the geography and industry).  At the end of the day, the cost of face-to-face selling time for many companies is running somewhere between $250 and $380 per selling hour.  And you thought your attorney was expensive!

I realize a portion of this burdened expense is performance based, and thus variable, but it is critical, especially for a first time entrepreneur, to fully understand the significance of the investment they’re making in field sales professionals.  Please keep in mind, these figures reflect fully engaged sales professionals.  Rarely have I met a sales person that wasn’t ready to jump ship for greener pastures, and the employee disengagement numbers are simply dismal today (for a detailed analysis on the misalignment of employees today, please visit Igniting Creativity in Business).

The point we brought to the surface through this investigation is you had better have a really solid sales launch plan in place before you decide to deploy a field sales team.  We were also able to make a strong case for our value proposition.  Without a finely honed, well targeted plan, you may find your sales acquisition costs are exceeding your profitability.

© 2012, Terry Murray.

SaleForce4Hire and Sales Prototyping are registered trademarks and servicemarks of McGeever©, LLC.

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June 4, 2012 · 6:20 pm

Terry Murray Discusses the Strategic Imperative of Creative Thinking in Business on the CBS Radio Network

The need for creative thinking has moved well out of R&D and marketing departments.  The speed and dynamics of today’s economic world require adaptive solutions to unprecedented challenges at every touch point within the organization.  I recently had the opportunity to discuss how to go about cultivating the type of organizational agility successful companies require in the 21st century with Walt Shaw on the CBS Radio Network.

You’re welcome to listen to the interview on the player below:

© 2012, Terry Murray.

© 2012, CBS Radio Network.

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June 1, 2012 · 1:49 pm

Why Small Firms Can Win the Coming Talent War

Key Concept ~ I read an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal the other day that revealed a remarkable level of stupidity being practiced in business.  In the article, “Software Screening Rejects Job Seekers“, Wharton School professor of management and human resources Peter Cappelli shared his insights into the jobs market and the implications today’s hiring procedures have on attracting and recruiting talent.

We’re hearing it all the time now.  Companies are continuously complaining that they can’t find the talent they need to fill open jobs.  Professor Cappelli decided to look into this situation and came up with the following conclusion; “The real culprits are the employers themselves”.  While the recession empowered employers to be exceptionally picky in their selection of job applicants another factor is at play; screening software is now used by major corporations in the hiring process.  Once again we see corporations running to technology to attempt to solve a human-centric challenge…looking out there for the solutions to today’s competitive challenges rather than being a bit more self-reflective and looking within for the answers.  And simply put, it doesn’t work.

In his upcoming book, “Why Good People Can’t Get Jobs”, Professor Cappelli reveals some striking examples of just how dysfunctional the hiring process has become.  One HR executive told him that, just as an experiment, he anonymously applied for an opening in his company.  He didn’t get through the computer screening process.  In addition, he witnessed managers piling on requirements to the point that nearly nobody on the planet would meet their expectations.  Another example of the mind-numbing stupidity being played out in corporate hiring environments is a company that received 25,000 applications for a basic engineering job.  The HR department reported that no qualified job seekers applied for the position.  Really?  One engineer reported that he was told that his background was perfect except for one thing; his last title didn’t match the title of the position in the company. A title which was unique to that company.  Worst of all, the vast majority of job seekers never have the opportunity to engage with a human being in the application process.

Now, for many, many years I’ve witnessed the hiring process being driven by risk-aversion.  Companies tend to hire the person that is least likely to fail rather than the one that is most likely to succeed.  It’s the equivalent of playing not to lose, rather than playing to win.  But what we’re seeing now makes that behavior look remarkably progressive.  The professor also points to the need for greater investments in education and training, on the part of the employers, to meet their shifting needs.  The mindful investment in human beings is mission critical in today’s economy.  Organizations must become learning organizations. in order to stay competitive.

While this trend is bad news for job seekers, it is excellent news for small, entrepreneurial firms.  The myopic approach of large companies is missing out on great talent simply because they didn’t formulate their resume with the proper keywords.  This is another example of the Industrial Age mindset still dominating Corporate America.  People are more than their resume.  Character, creativity, inter-personal skills and emotional intelligence are difficult to communicate on a one page resume.  These intangibles, that are proven to be the key drivers of success, are only revealed through relationship.  By meeting, or at the very least, speaking with a potential candidate.

Big companies have long enjoyed intrinsic advantages over smaller competitors.  This remarkable misstep opens the door to a more level playing field.  In the 21st century, talent will be the deciding factor on who wins and who loses.

© 2012, Terry Murray.

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April 29, 2012 · 8:39 am

The Strategic Imperative of Inclusive, Creative Organizational Culture

Key Concept ~ In our series on the three key elements for accelerating successful startups, here’s the third in a series of excerpts from my book, “The Transformational Entrepreneur ~ Engaging The Mind, Heart & Spirit For Breakthrough Business Success”.  (Note:  A special thanks to my readers for your patience in the the updates on this blog site.  The team’s been in Missouri for the past ten days conducting a series of training exercises with psychologists from the VA and with local veterans to launch Warriors in Transition in the Southeast Missouri community).

~ Creative Culture

While leadership is paramount in orchestrating the creative visualization of an enlightened strategic planning process, it is the propagation of culture that will carry an organization forward to scalable heights (or lows; it cuts both ways) that resonate far beyond a single personality.  It is much like the relationship between a gardener and their garden.  The gardener may be capable of inspirational work, but it is the garden that inspires.

The traditional definition of organizational culture is the shared values, norms, artifacts, and embraced behaviors of an enterprise.  This is a somewhat superficial definition that historically has proven to poorly serve leaders attempting to drive performance or organizational change.  At best, it places culture at the periphery of the company, as if it is a side effect of the mission.  At worst, by referring to culture as an artifact, it infers that the culture is a coincidental by-product or relic of the organization.

In reality, culture is the vibrational resonance of the collective consciousness of the organization.  This immediately changes the way we think about culture.  It is no longer a by-product of what a company does but a powerful force that affects everything and everybody involved in the business.  The frequency of cultural energy is self-generating and perpetually regenerating.  When we drop a pebble into a pool we cannot alter the ripples that move continuously outward without disrupting the entire pool.  It is leadership’s role to drop the appropriate pebbles, at the appropriate time, knowing the resonance will expand beyond their immediate control.

For nearly a decade working as a strategic consultant with life science and medical device start-up enterprises I began to notice a common challenge shared by these companies.  The vast majority of these companies emerge from intellectual property cultivated in academic settings.  As these companies are formed they bring along members of the research staff and are often lead by a scientist, physician, or engineer that first developed the technology in their laboratory.  It is an exciting time reflecting the natural progression of organizational evolution, but this progression requires substantive, adaptive change at the very heart of the enterprise.

Unwittingly, these entrepreneurs bring along the academic culture from whence they came.  The culture that was ideal for the nurturing and early cultivation of their intellectual property is ironically very poorly suited for the business environment they are attempting to enter.  This is exacerbated by the nature of their technology and the critical demands of customers, regulators, and investors in the health care and pharmaceutical research markets.  The mission has changed (moving from creating technology to commercializing technology) yet the emerging organization clings to their historical culture, usually quite unaware of the risk this is about to introduce to the nascent company.

I’ve observed that these start-up companies are often unaware of the imperative need to quickly migrate from an academic culture to that of a business oriented culture.  This naiveté is a leading contributor of failure in early stage companies.  It is not the technology that fails; it is leadership’s inability to recognize the significance of culture and the fundamental importance of creating and cultivating the culture necessary to meet the high expectations of their target marketplace.

But why is this?  These are quite often remarkably gifted intellectuals capable of remarkable discoveries, insights, and performance.  It is a facet of business dogma that culture is a by-product of artifacts, shared values, and attitudes rather than the actual energy of the collective consciousness of the organization.  It is not peripheral; it is concentric to the very essence of the organization.

The academic culture to which they cling isn’t bad; it is just as it should be in the early, creative stages of intellectual property.  It simply no longer resonates with the frequency the evolving organization needs to successfully connect with customers in a commercial environment.  The very nature of the enterprise has evolved and it is leadership’s responsibility to anticipate and ignite the new energy and intention necessary to fulfill this new mission.

One of the reasons culture may be perceived as an allusive, almost amorphous issue may be due to the fact that it is rarely discussed during the early stages of company creation.  There are so many urgent and demanding issues organizations face as they struggle to establish traction and stability in the marketplace.  Culture always seems to take a back seat in development.  From my experience, it is only when culture becomes a problem that there is a conscious effort to address the situation.  By that time it is like trying to turn around an aircraft carrier traversing the Suez Canal.  The constraints of the business make it a formidable task that no one wants to get in front of in order to resolve.

Another reason business culture tends to take on a seemingly uncontrolled life of its own is the lack of focus on culture in the development and execution of the strategic plan.  It simply isn’t a traditional core focus of senior management and it can be a difficult area to measure in an objective manner.  Perhaps industrial companies operating in the twentieth century could get away with ignoring this strategic imperative, but contemporary enterprises leveraging intellectual property for value creation can no longer afford to avoid the importance of culture.

The propagation of a creative, healthy culture begins with the expressed intention of authentic leadership.  Associates take their cue from the words and behaviors of their executives.  If leadership expresses a predatory, win at all cost philosophy, the behaviors of the organization will follow suit.  Nowhere is the old adage of reaping what one sows more accurately reflected than in the creation of organizational culture.  When associates buy-in to the vision, intention, and strategy, a corresponding, positive energy begins to resonate throughout a business.  As a business grows in size, the outer bands of this energy are subject to the laws of inertia.  A body at rest tends to stay at rest and a body in motion tends to stay in motion.  This is why culture demands attention early in the developmental stages of a business.  Once the initial, framing forces are unleashed they are very difficult to modulate.

The traditional definition of culture references shared values; this warrants a bit more discussion.  Culture is affected by the shared, living values of an organization.  There are two types of living values in a company; explicit shared values and implicit shared values.

Explicit values are best reflected through thoughtfully crafted Vision Statements and Mission Statements.  These formal articulations define who we are and where we’re going.  Unfortunately, these formal statements are often another area of peripheral focus, especially in emerging organizations (we’ll discuss creating powerful Vision and Mission Statements in detail in Chapter Six).  Explicit values are also reinforced through the language and focus expressed in standard operating procedures.  This emphasizes how we will act in the daily conduct of our business; how we will treat our customers and stakeholders and resonate with the sense of responsibility we have to those working around us.

Explicit values are almost always highly positive in their intention but they can be dramatically tempered by the implicit values of an organization.  These are the unwritten rules of a company and these unspoken values are capable of derailing the finest intentions.

Implicit values often emerge from ego and therefore are frequently based in fear, insecurity, and the desire to perpetuate positions of power.  Unwritten rules can cover a wide spectrum of acceptable and non-acceptable behaviors in a company.  Expectations of dress, informal lines of communication throughout the hierarchy, subtle power influencers, and the evaluation criteria of performance are prime examples.  I’ve even experienced environments where the exercising of vested stock options was perceived to be a career killer by senior management!  This certainly wasn’t written anywhere, but it was clearly understood by everyone.

The example we’ve probably all experienced at one time or another is the existence of a good ole’ boy network in a company.  The existence of such cliques are, by definition, exclusive, rather than inclusive.  They disenfranchise talented associates and propagate office politics.  Such cliques often display passive-aggressive behaviors that exist only to serve the ego and selfish desires of individuals in an organization.

The consistent display of authentic leadership helps ensure the alignment of implicit values with organizational intention.  This makes sense as authentic leadership is not rooted in the ego.  Authentic leadership also cultivates empathy throughout the culture, a powerful and binding force of positive intention.  We’ll explore this in more detail in Chapter Eight.

It is impossible to parse out any one of the three key attributes of transformational performance.  They are all intertwined in the tapestry of the organization and require continuous attention over time.  With these concepts as our backdrop we can now begin to discuss the step-by-step process to transform your organization or lay the right foundation for your startup endeavor!

© Terry Murray, 2012.

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April 18, 2012 · 8:29 am

Igniting Your Entrepreneurial Fire ~ Part II

Key Concept ~ Continuing our series on the three key elements for accelerating successful startups, here’s part two of three of excerpts from my book, “The Transformational Entrepreneur ~ Engaging The Mind, Heart & Spirit For Breakthrough Business Success”, which was cited in the March edition of the academic Journal For Economic Literature for its contribution to thought leadership and the field of business management.  It discusses enlightened strategic planning.

When I was a young executive working in Corporate America, I began to experience something that, at the time, I couldn’t quite explain.  As I was given responsibility to create or turn around business units, I would always start by sitting down with my front-line managers and field associates to discuss where we were, what internal and external challenges were before us, and solicit their opinions as to what we should do to move the business forward.  I felt strongly that by taking an inclusive approach I would begin to gain their trust and best serve the interests of the company by embracing the experience and day-to-day knowledge of what was really happening in the trenches.  We would then embark on the strategic planning process during which time we would openly challenge our assumptions in lively discourse and stretch the boundaries of what was traditionally perceived to be possible.  From this process a momentum would emerge, more rapidly and more powerfully than what any of us could have imagined!

I had come to appreciate that the strategic planning process was an iterative one, and the questions that we asked of ourselves were often more important than the answers we would eventually discover.  Upon reaching agreement on the plan of action, I would travel to the field to communicate the vision and strategy that we had developed, again drawing the associates into a lively conversation of what was and wasn’t working.  I emphasized we had a shared responsibility to ensure we were taking care of our customers and embracing the spirit of our strategic plan.  I would continuously remind everyone that the strategic plan was a living document, it was not etched in stone, and everyone was empowered to help calibrate the implementation of the plan moving forward.

The one constant that I began to observe surprised me.  At the point in time that we had perhaps fifty to sixty percent of our strategies implemented we would be on track to achieve our objectives!  It seemed illogical to me at first.  How could we be tracking 100% to plan when we were only half way through the implementation and execution of our strategies?  What I know now is that I was observing the power of collective intention, the cumulative energy that accelerated the manifestation of our vision!  This energy was a direct result of the culture we had co-created.  A culture that was kindled by the intention and creative visualization that was expressed through the strategic planning process (we will explore this further in step-by-step detail in Chapter Seven).

The concept of employing creative visualization as the first step in manifesting a new reality is not new.  Our intention helps us create a wondrous reality that we, as spiritual beings, are meant to enjoy.  On the surface it may sound a bit New Age to some people, a bit beyond the pale of what we, as Westerners, consider realistic.

Yet haven’t we all observed a similar occurrence that is very common in athletics?  We have all heard a broadcaster covering a football or basketball game suddenly exclaim how one of the teams has all the momentum.  We cannot see the force behind the momentum yet we can observe its effects on the game.  Suddenly, through a shift in attitude and energy everything seems to fall into place for one of the teams.  In a matter of a few plays, one team is more dynamic than the other, and their execution becomes so well orchestrated the other team almost looks as if they are standing still trying to defend them.  A quarterback or point guard is suddenly in the zone, their timing is in perfect alignment with their teammates, they’re somehow anticipating the defense…they just can’t miss.  The announcer exclaims, “They’re really feeling it now!”  It is the exact same phenomena I was witnessing in business.

Athletics offer us a wonderful example of presence, which is a core attribute of conscious leadership, of being totally present in the moment, in the now.  An Olympic gymnast is not thinking about all the details of a routine as they perform.  A golfer cannot be thinking about the nuances of mechanics during his or her swing.  They quiet their minds and enter into a near meditative state as they compete.  They are conscious of their performance but not thinking about their performance.  Athletes, when at the top of their game anticipate and act rather than think and react.

This phenomena is supported by hard science.  When we are fully engaged and enjoying what we are doing we enter what renowned researcher and psychology professor Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi refers to as flow.  Dr. Csikszentmihalyi’s research looked into the psychological state of a wide variety of professionals operating at peak performance.  When they were fully engaged, focused, and enjoying their endeavor, their biochemistry reflected an increase in cortisol (part of the hypothalamic/pituitary/adrenal or HPA axis in our brains) which brought them to a place in which they were taking full advantage of their cognitive and physical abilities.  If the HPA axis shot past this optimal point due to stress, adrenaline and cortisol levels continued to rise and performance rapidly diminished.  His work proved that a person’s emotional state is a governing factor in cognitive and physical performance.

When a group of athletes are engaging in team competition (and doing it well) they manifest a cumulative energy.  Their combined intention, their collective consciousness, elevates the team to an entirely new level of performance.  We can achieve the same thing in business; fore it is not simply physical or mental execution but the collective consciousness of our team that generates this remarkable energy.  The key is in creating a strategic plan and dynamic culture that empowers our associates to be present in the moment, to concentrate on creating and delivering value to our customers now, rather than being consumed with what may come tomorrow or concerned about what wasn’t done yesterday.

Strategic planning as a form of creative visualization that also enables presence may raise the question, “How are you in the moment when you are looking one, three, or five years ahead?”  It is a logical question.  Let me use an analogy to help explain this:

Let’s envision a business, just for a moment, as a tribe of hunters and gatherers living ten thousand years ago.  As the leaders of the tribe, we are highly aware of our environment.  As time passes, we begin to observe a change in the climate; with each passing year it is getting colder much earlier in the year and staying cold much longer into the spring.  We observe the birds and other animals beginning to migrate south much earlier than what we have historically observed and notice they are also returning later in the spring.  From our observations, from our awareness, we develop a Vision that these elongated winters may be less severe in the South.  It stands to reason that if the migrating animals are leaving earlier and staying longer food supplies are most likely more abundant as well.

We establish a Goal of migrating south to ensure the tribe will continue to prosper.  In order to do so, we must cross a large mountain range before the early autumn snows begin and block the high passes.  We now have an Objective that is critical to the success of achieving our Goal; we must clear the high passes before the snow flies or we could become stranded and perish.

There are many passes we can choose from, some representing a more arduous climb, but are more direct, and others that offer a gentle slope, yet will take longer.  We must now decide upon our Strategies.  The amount of risk we are willing to incur and how we intend to balance the risk of each approach with the risk of failing to reach the passes before the snows begin.

Our Strategies reflect the constraints we have identified through a thorough Self-Assessment.   We have examined our strengths and weaknesses.  How many children and elders must survive this trek?  Do we have ample supplies for the journey?  Who are our harbingers for this journey that can blaze the trail for the remainder of the tribe?  Have we carefully evaluated the landscape and challenged our assumptions of the risks involved?  What is the Competitive Landscape; are there hostile tribes living along the way that may wish us harm?  Might there be opportunities to partner with other tribes?  Have we properly scouted our options and truly know what we face?  Have we challenged our assumptions and appreciate the fact we still don’t know what we don’t know?

At the end of all this discussion and evaluation we realize that the only way we can manifest our Vision (abundance for the tribe) and achieve our Goal (to be in the South), and to secure our Objective (navigate the mountain passes before the autumn snow), is to walk south every day one step at a time, regardless of the Strategic path we have chosen.  Our Tactics…for each of us, once the decision has been made to take the journey, must simply focus on taking one step at a time in the moment.

Much like the tribal elders in this analogy, business leaders have the responsibility of formulating a clear and concise vision, communicate it effectively so that others can share in it, and to discern the best path for the organization to follow through the mature evaluation of risks and rewards.  In doing so, we can, in combination with a healthy, vibrant, and trusting culture, enable associates to concentrate on each step they are taking in the moment, to be truly present, to execute on the plan now and make it a reality for us all.

© 2012, Terry Murray.

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April 12, 2012 · 12:41 pm

Igniting Your Entrepreneurial Fire

Key Concept ~ While the cacophony of social media,  cloud technology, mobile apps, etc., continues the dominate the business landscape, the core fundamentals for success remain the same.  Over the next three blogs, I’d like to share the fundamentals I learned over my 25 year career in both corporate leadership roles and in entrepreneurial settings.  Your success will greatly be determined by three critical elements.  These next three blogs are an excerpt from my book, “The Transformational Entrepreneur ~ Engaging The Mind, Heart & Spirit For Breakthrough Business Success”, which was cited in the March edition of the academic Journal For Economic Literature for its contribution to thought leadership and the field of business management.

Creating transformational performance is like igniting a fire; it requires three fundamental elements.  A fire requires a source of heat, fuel, and oxygen in order to burn.  Transformational performance requires authentic, conscious leadership (the heat), a visionary strategic plan (the fuel), and a creative culture that fully engages the entire workforce (the oxygen).

While transformational performance cannot occur without all three elements, the quality of leadership will greatly enhance or diminish both the ascendance and long-term success of a business.  The intensity of its energy and the clarity of its intention can emulate that of a paper match or an acetylene torch.

The quality of the strategic plan will influence sustainability and growth; it can take the form of seasoned hardwood or half-rotted pulp.  The final element, culture, can fan or extinguish the brightest leadership and the most thoughtful strategies.  Like oxygen, we cannot literally see culture, yet it is the air we all breathe.

~ Authentic Leadership

Leading a business requires a strong and unflinching sense of responsibility for the associates who depend upon your wisdom, integrity, and stewardship.  Their livelihoods, dreams, and aspirations are invested in your guidance.  This is a sacred trust.  Associates trust that you will do your best to ensure the health and vitality of the business.  The stronger their level of trust in your leadership, the more willing they will be to fully invest their time, energy, and enthusiasm in the success of the endeavor.  The level of authenticity a leader expresses in their daily interactions with people and in how they address challenging situations will have an enormous impact on execution.

Authenticity may sound like an unusual word to describe leadership, but its meaning reflects several key characteristics that are critical to successfully leading human beings.  There are three primary definitions of authenticity in the dictionary; the quality of being authentic, trustworthy or genuine, and the displaying of undisputed credibility.

The quality of being authentic begins with being true to one’s self.  This quality emerges through self reflection and inner exploration and infers an active awareness of one’s consciousness.  The complete spectrum of who we are physically, intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually.  This includes being in touch with, and trusting in, one’s own intuition.  We’ll explore the role of intuition further in Chapter Four.

At times, being true to one’s self isn’t easy.  It can test our moral courage.  In the late 1990’s while serving as the vice president of sales and marketing for a highly acquisitive life science company I experienced this conflict.  I found myself confronted with having to decide whether I would lead with authenticity or “go along to get along”.

Shortly after our company purchased a small manufacturing concern we found ourselves with two mid-level executives with overlapping responsibilities for managing our European sales business.  One was from our organization and one arrived with the acquired company.  The president of our company had sidestepped a decision on realigning responsibilities for two months.  The new executive was very political and focused much of his efforts and energy to develop a social relationship with the president, inviting him to play golf and entertaining him at his home.    After more than a year of diligent work on the part of our director to build our business in Europe the ambiguity began wearing on his emotions and productivity.

The situation left me uneasy at what I felt was inherently unfair.  At the very least, our director deserved a word of clarification on the issue.  Finally, on a Friday afternoon preceding our director leaving on a scheduled trip to meet with our European partners (who would be looking for direction and clarification as well) I felt compelled to address the situation with the president.  My inquiry infuriated the president who proceeded to lash out verbally.  I took some lumps and expended significant political capital, but my authentic concern for my direct report resonated throughout the sales and marketing organization, building trust and resulting in measurably marked improvements in sales performance.

As the years progressed, I began to realize my sensibilities of leadership didn’t correlate with what I was consistently experiencing in Corporate America.  While my performance was frequently lauded by my superiors, I would eventually find myself at odds with the status quo.  Somehow, my presence made my fellow executives uncomfortable.  Our intentions didn’t match.  I eventually came to the realization I didn’t belong in this environment and made the decision to strike out on my own and start a business focusing on coaching entrepreneurs on leadership, strategy, and business process.  In discovering and following my authentic self I now work from a position of service that has created the greatest joy and satisfaction I have ever experienced in my life!

The second definition of authenticity is “trustworthy or genuine”.  Trust is an energy that flows in a circular orbit.  It cannot move in one direction without returning to whence it came.  Some people allow themselves to trust more readily than others, but once trust has been broached it is often nearly impossible to mend.

Cultivating a trustworthy environment dispels people’s fears and calms insecurities.  It enables people to function in the moment without worrying about the repercussions of making an honest mistake.  The legendary salesman and early leader of IBM, Thomas J. Watson, was once quoted as saying, “Recently, I was asked if I was going to fire an employee who made a mistake that cost the company $600,000. No, I replied, I just spent $600,000 training him. Why would I want somebody to hire his experience?”

Sometimes we learn more from our mistakes and allowing for the occasional mistake without the anticipation or fear of punishment builds trust.  Trusting associates empowers people to work from their heart which draws upon the energy of positive intention.  It opens the door to passionate engagement and reveals the hidden workforce lying quietly just beneath the surface in many businesses.  Creating an environment that encourages mature, thoughtful risk-taking delivers returns that far exceed any potential losses.

In the context of our discussion, the definition of “genuine” refers to being from the original stock or lineage, of being a genuine human being.  This implies we see each other as universally and energetically connected as a single entity of creation.  In doing so, we are able to express empathy for one another as easily and openly as we are able to care about our selves.  The resonant power of empathy consistently expressed by leadership cannot be overestimated.  It conveys genuine concern and respect for an associate’s well-being.  In doing so, it lowers barriers and engages the heart as well as the mind.  It is something we all can relate to.  Ask yourself, how much more are you willing to do for someone that genuinely cares about you?

Several years ago I was engaged in a strategic planning project with an immersive learning company.  They focused on teaching empathy in health care environments in response to malpractice lawsuits.  The financial exposure the risk of malpractice introduces to insurance companies, hospitals, and physicians’ practices has resulted in extensive, scientific research into the reasons why people sue.  We tapped into this research as part of our planning process and what we discovered was very surprising.  It turns out people sue based upon how they feel they were treated after a medical error had occurred and not directly because of the error itself.  Patients and patients’ families that were treated with empathy were significantly less likely to sue.  That’s a powerful statement.  In the midst of experiencing one of the most severe health and emotional crisis humans may encounter, empathy was the balm that soothed the intensity of a catastrophic medical event.  Imagine the power empathy can have in an everyday business environment!

The third definition of authenticity is “undisputed credibility”, which emphasizes the importance of being impeccable with your word and ensuring the consistent alignment of your actions with your words.  Walking the walk and talking the talk.  In the noble words of St. Francis of Assisi, “It is no use walking anywhere to preach unless our walking is our preaching.”

One of the fastest ways to disengage a workforce is for leadership to display behavior that is inconsistent with their words.  It conveys the existence of double standards; one for associates and a separate, privileged set of standards for executives.  If you want associates to perform at a high level then live, work, and consistently display that level in your own behavior.  Keep in mind it is human nature to remember the missteps.  You can be consistently credible 99% of the time but it will be the one time you are inconsistent with your word that associates will remember.

Another powerful, yet often overlooked attribute of authentic leadership is the ability to sense and respect people’s boundaries.  Hierarchical leadership has a tendency to create boundaries that run in one direction.  Actually, they are more like barriers than boundaries.  Barriers that create a set of expectations that govern behavior and one-directional communication that are meant to sustain authority and control.  Projecting a lack of respect for the boundaries of subordinates causes emotional barriers to be erected.  As emotional barriers come up associate engagement goes down.  Conversely, enabling the creation of healthy boundaries engages associates’ sense of worth and creativity.

People need to feel secure in their own space; this extends to emotional and intellectual space as well as physical space.  When people are able to create and maintain a container of self their creativity will blossom.  When physical space is constrained, such as when cubicles are used for workspace, fostering healthy emotional and mental boundaries is even more important to fully engage associates.  Authority figures that roll over these boundaries lead people to freeze up and withdraw, working while keeping their heads down to avoid further transgressions into their comfort zone.  Giving associates the space to think and, at the appropriate time, to simply be, engages the imagination and the heart.  The consistent expression of authentic leadership will rapidly reveal previously unseen opportunities for the organization.

© 2012, Terry Murray.

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March 28, 2012 · 12:28 pm

The Transformational Entrepreneur Cited in the Academic Journal of Economic Literature

For Immediate Release – March 28, 2012 -

Terry Murray’s groundbreaking book, “The Transformational Entrepreneur ~ Engaging The Mind, Heart & Spirit For Business Breakthrough Success” was recognized and cited in the peer-reviewed, academic Journal of Economic Literature’s March 2012 quarterly issue.

Performance Transformation, LLC™ (Venice, FL) announced today that their founder and Managing Partner’s book, “The Transformational Entrepreneur”was recognized and cited in the academic Journal of Economic Literature for its contribution to professional business literature and thought leadership.

“We received the unsolicited notification letter from the Journal last week,” responded Mr. Murray. “It was both humbling and exciting at the same time.  I’ve been working on the business side of the life sciences, medical technology and health care sectors since 1988, so I have an enormous appreciation for the diligence of peer-reviewed, academic journals.  As a business executive, and not an academic, this is a distinct honor for my book to be recognized for its contribution to the field of business and economic professional literature.”

The Journal of Economic Literature is published by the American Economic Association (AEA), a professional organization of economists, academics, and business thought leaders with more than 22,000 members.

“My executive career has spanned some truly remarkable changes in the global business landscape,” added Terry.  ”Historically, there’s always been a lag in leadership, strategy and organizational philosophy in response to market shifts in value creation.  I entered the biotechnology world during its infancy.  This was the beginning of the knowledge-based economy and coincided with the boom in personal computing.  Yet the methods, perspectives, and philosophies we were trained for in business school all emerged out of the Industrial Age.  We literally had to discover a new approach to business as usual along the way, but it is only today, some 25 years later, that the strategic imperative of human creativity in business is beginning to move into the mainstream.”

“The Transformational Entrepreneur” will also be indexed in the American Economic Association’s internet database, EconLit, which is accessible at libraries and universities around the world, as well as to licensed institutions and AEA members.  The electronic bibliography indexes over 120 years of economics literature from around the world.  The database complies professional journal articles, collective volume articles, working papers, dissertations, and books of note on the subject of economics and business practice.

“The shift in the source of value creation truly began in the 1980s, but information technology bridged the productivity gap for thirty years, masking the need for a change in the approach to  leadership, strategy and organizational development.  By the turn of the century it was already beginning to hit a point of diminishing returns, right at the time the explosively disruptive power of the internet began to take off.  Even old world industries are doing business in ways they never could have anticipated ten years ago,” commented Terry.

Mr. Murray went on to say, “Perhaps because I was immersed in the knowledge-based economy for so long I saw the need for a more human-centric approach to business.  Research scientists, physicians and engineers, and their creative talents, are the raw material for value creation and competitive advantage in this new era of business.  You cannot lead creatives the same way we once managed assembly line workers.  Two years after I began writing my book, the IBM Global CEO Survey exemplified the perspective and approach I was writing about at the time, reporting that creativity and the ability to cultivate creativity throughout the workplace was the single most important attribute CEOs are looking for in future leaders.”

Terry’s book was published two months after IBM released the results of their bi-annual survey in December of 2010.

About the author ~ Terry Murray is an author, speaker, entrepreneur, and professional business advisor/coach with twenty-five years of progressive experience in strategic development, executive leadership, and the deployment of highly profitable business teams. His work with Fortune 1000 and startup companies has directly contributed more than $1 billion in market capitalization growth throughout his career.

He is the founder and Managing Partner of Performance Transformation, LLC™, a professional and strategic development firm focused on igniting breakthrough performance by optimizing and aligning authentic leadership, mindful strategy, and an engaging, creative organizational culture.  The company’s evidence-based programs and pragmatic approach employs their proprietary Accretive Coaching Process℠.  This innovative, developmental process integrates concepts from published research in the neurosciences, emotional intelligence, performance psychology, quantum physics and Applied Behavioral Economics with Equine Facilitated Experiential Learning.

For more information, please visit 
http://ignitingcreativityinbusiness.com
.

© 2012, Performance Transformation, LLC™.


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March 12, 2012 · 10:00 pm

Performance Transformation Launches Igniting Creativity in Business

PR Newswire – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Performance Transformation, LLC™ (Venice, FL) announced today the launch of their new professional development programs and workshops designed to cultivate creativity in the workplace.

“We’re very excited to bring our innovative approach into the marketplace,” said Terry Murray, Founder and Managing Partner of Performance Transformation.  ”Regardless of your industry, creativity thinking is now a strategic imperative for cultivating and sustaining competitive advantage in the 21st Century.”

In fact, the 2010 IBM Global CEO survey identified the single most important attribute CEOs are looking for in future leaders is creativity and their ability to cultivate creativity throughout the organization.  However, a peer-reviewed research study conducted by Cornell University  and published in The Journal For Experimental Social Psychology identifies a disconnect.  The research identified a heretofore unseen bias in business.  High potentials that display creativity are often sidetracked on their way up the corporate ladder.

“The accelerating complexity of the global marketplace we’re currently experiencing is unprecedented,” adds Mr. Murray.  ”Creative thinking can no longer be relegated to the R&D or marketing functions.  It needs to be present at every touchpoint throughout the organization.”

More than four years in development and validation, the Igniting Creativity In Business series of professional development programs and workshops are entirely based upon peer-reviewed research from diverse, scientific disciplines.  Research findings from the neurosciences, emotional intelligence, biochemistry, Applied Behavioral Economics, Core Mammalian Emotional Systems, performance psychology, creativity research, Kolb’s Adult Learning Style Inventory, and quantum physics have been integrated into a multi-dimensional, innovative approach for sparking creativity and innovative thinking.

“For the past four years we’ve been focused on developing and delivering programs and workshops that align and optimize leadership, strategy, and organizational culture,” states Terry.  ”Our baseline programs, first released in 2010, Transformational Leadership, Adaptive Team Building, Igniting Breakthrough Sales, The Emotionally Resilient Nurse, and Warriors in Transition set the foundation for the next evolution in professional development.  When we saw the results from the IBM Global CEO Survey a year and a half ago we realized we had identified the fundamental elements necessary for promulgating creativity in business.”

In the past two years, more than a dozen research studies and surveys have been released by global consultancies, universities, and leading institutions all pointing to the growing disconnect between leadership and employees.  Economic volatility and the global recession contributed to this issue. On a macro level, more than 70% of employees are disengaged with their company.  Trust in leadership is at an all time low (10%) and fear dominates many organizational cultures.

Terry goes on to state, “Fear kills creativity.  It is part of our Core Mammalian Emotional System.  When we promote fear as a motivating factor, we get a predictable response; disengagement.  When we promote another of our part of our Core Mammalian Emotional System, seeking, we also get a predictable response; engagement and creativity.”

Today’s multi-cultural and multi-generational workplace provides significant opportunities for devising and implementing creative solutions to challenges and opportunities alike.  It does, however, require a fresh approach to leading, planning, and delivering a culture capable of engaging every human perspective in the business.

“Creative thinking requires both divergent thinking and convergent focus,” added Terry.  ”Diversity of perspectives, coming from diverse people is key.  Inclusion of diverse perspectives has never been more strategically important for companies than it is today.  The other key element for creative thinking that is often overlooked in business is novel stimuli.”

Performance Transformation delivers novel cognitive, emotional, and psychological stimuli through their proprietary Accretive Coaching Process℠, which can include Equine Facilitated Experiential Learning workshops.  The carefully crafted, ground-based exercises with horses introduces a novel, neurological response triggering the development of new neural pathways.  This approach, followed up with a rigorous educational and coaching process helps professionals shift their response to new challenges away from conditioned thinking into an exploratory, neurological response.

Terry concludes, “The challenge is to first promote the formation of new neural pathways in the individual through the introduction of emotionally, cognitively, and psychologically novel stimuli.  To break out of the wheel worn paths of conditioned thinking.  The brain is very conservative with energy, so it has a tendency to follow the path of least resistance.  Developing new neural pathways takes more energy than following established ones.  The more practiced we are in developing new ways of thinking, the easier it becomes to respond to unprecedented challenges in creative ways.  We then work to help client organizations connect and amplify the nodes of though throughout their company.  This approach to cross-pollinating organizational thinking is the key to success going forward.”

© 2012, Performance Transformation, LLC™.

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March 5, 2012 · 5:55 pm

Are You Prepared for the Talent Shortage?

Key Concept ~ Competing for talent is always a challenge for small firms.  The competition for talent in the 21st Century is already accelerating.  Entrepreneurial startups may want to rethink how they attract, recruit, and retain talent going foward.

The global staffing firm Manpower Group™ issued their 2011 Global Talent Shortage Survey (Manpower Global Talent Survey 2011 PDF) recently in which they identified that 52% of U.S. firms are struggling to find adequate talent for open positions.  In all of the Americas only Brazil, at 57%, is experiencing a greater shortage of talent than the U.S.  I don’t know about you, but I find this to be quite a sad commentary on the state of competitive fitness in the U.S.  There are few signs the talent shortage is about to abate any time soon.  In fact, most executives are anticipating the opposite; as we continue to move further away from the Great Recession the competition for talent will continue to heat up.

So, what are companies doing in response?  According to the survey, not much. In response to the shortage of talent (particularly for technicians, sales representatives, and skilled trade workers…the top three areas of talent shortfalls) only one out of five companies is increasing their training and educational programs for their associates.  Only 6% are pro-actively working with local schools and educational institutions to help address the skill gap.  More companies (25%) are changing their recruiting strategy than are looking to change, or even evaluate, their approach to how they lead and develop talent.

What was really startling was the perception held by executives as to the level of impact not filling key openings in a timely manner has on stakeholders (customers, investors, associates, etc.).  Only one out of five executives surveyed felt not backfilling a critical, open position has a high impact on constituents.  The survey goes on to identify 43% of executives believe leaving a position open has little impact, no impact, or didn’t know if open positions had any impact whatsoever on stakeholders.  This certainly isn’t the impression I’ve been getting from the research that continues to emerge from companies like McKinsey & Co., Gallup, RogenSi, Martitz Research, and other global consultancies.  The disconnect this points to is nothing short of astounding.  Hopefully, entrepreneurs, who tend to be closer to the front lines of day-to-day business, recognize just how disruptive this can be for the associates that remain onboard.

We collectively seem to have very short memories.  It was just fourteen short years ago when we went through the last severe chase for talent.  I was running a global service business in the biotechnology/pharmaceutical sector for a major corporation at the time.  The dot.com boom was in full swing, and places like the San Francisco Bay Area, a hotbed for both the high tech and biotech industries, had an unemployment rate of around 1%.  Our own customers were aggressively pirating our technicians away from our business.  Technicians that required six months of training and education before they were fully capable of conducting their work within the highly regulated biopharmaceutical industry.  Even if I could find potential technicians worth training, the skyrocketing wage scale and cost of living in the Bay Area created remarkable barriers to backfilling.  It became so severe, we would dispatch technicians from as far away as Mexico City and New Jersey for a week at a time to support our customers in Northern California.

What’s coming next will make that talent shortage pale in comparison.  More than 10,000 Baby Boomers are retiring every day.  This rate of retirement will continue for the next seventeen years!  Workers from the Gen X and Gen Y generations are simultaneously introducing an entirely different set of expectations regarding their careers.  They are far more mobile than their Baby Boomer predecessors.  They expect opportunities for professional development and a greater sense of purposefulness as part of their employment.  They witnessed leagues of loyal Boomers work for corporations for decades only to be callously displaced at the next downturn.  The typical length of engagement for these younger workers, the ones with the adaptive technology skills companies covet so dearly, is around three years.  Perhaps this is part of the reason companies are so hesitant to provide training and employ professional development plans?  I’ll hire it when I need it seems to continue to be the prevailing attitude, unfortunately, it may not be there when you go looking for it.

Many companies are holding fast to their slash and burn harvest mentality.  Of squeezing every bit of value out of fewer and fewer human resources.  Of expecting more and offering less in return.  The survey and research results of the past few years are clearly demonstrating the effect of this on the workforce.  The majority of workers are feeling over-burdened, disengaged, and apathetic towards their employers.  The social contract, one’s whose expectations were forged in the post-WWII era, between employers and employees is broken. Talent holds the cards now, and it will be talent that will renegotiates this relationship going forward.

This creates an opportunistic environment for entrepreneurs.  Create a better working experience, and the talent will very likely find your firm, however small, an attractive alternative to life in corporate settings.  As an example, my first national sales management position was with a small company in Massachusetts.  We were anything but an attractive employer for top, seasoned sales talent.  We were, however, a wonderful place for high potential talent to germinate, get a few years of real, business-to-business sales experience in the life science market, and move on to a top-notch gig with a major company in the sector.  I chose attitude, intelligence, and the desire to grow professionally over experience.  I chose to train my sales team to sell the way I knew, from my own sales experience in the sector, would work.  I knew going in, I had to catch the talent on their ascent, and provide them with the training and experience they needed to get to where they wanted to go.  I knew my place in the career food chain, followed this approach, and the team achieved exceptional results.  Each sales representative I hired was with us for just a little over two years and every one of them went on to six figure sales jobs with their next company.  It was a fair trade-off, everybody won because we had calibrated our expectations accordingly.

As the talent wars continue to flare up, take a step back and look at what you have to offer.  You may be pleasantly surprised by embracing a fresh perspective in what you define as talent and what you need in terms of experience.

© 2012, Terry Murray.

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