Bob Schultek

Bob has more than 30 years of service as a senior sales and business development executive, CEO and business owner. His expertise includes customer-partnered business development, strategic planning, sales management, customer service, operational alignment, lean process analysis and improvement, quality assurance, and performance management. He has worked in the energy, medical device, bioscience & pharmaceutical, discrete and process manufacturing, packaging and distribution, communications and information technology, and business-to-business service industries.

Change Begins With 3 Agreements

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Bob Schultek rschultek@staging.elfin-bead.flywheelsites.com 216-272-4449     Convincing someone to join you in the pursuit of change begins with three agreements: Agree on reality. Describe the current situation, validated by facts and proof  Agree on goals. Specify shared goals, acknowledging diversity in how they can be achieved. Agree on vision. Having agreed on the reality and goals, envision success. These three agreements forge a bond of common purpose to pursue change and lay the foundation of mutual accountability …

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The First Step When It’s Time to Plan

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When growth stalls or is rapidly accelerating, or when you’re seeking investment, or when you’re thinking about who will succeed you, these are the triggers that compel you to plan for the future. When the time to plan arrives, what’s the best first step? Throughout your organization, heads are down and focused on the near term, ever reacting to marketplace changes. Over time, what began as an opportunistic, hopefully profitable venture, becomes preoccupied – first …

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Leading Productive Conflict

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A key ingredient of enduring team relationships is productive conflict. Sustaining trust within a team requires the occasional fearless, passionate exchange of alternative, sometimes contradictory, ideas. Conflict is often considered to be offensive in organizations.  As leaders progress in their careers, they tend to invest increasing amounts of energy avoiding the spirited debates that are necessary for building the most effective teams. To be clear, productive conflict is focused on exploring ideological differences, not destructive …

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Why Customers Are Dissatisfied

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The most productive way to grow sales is to increase orders from current customers. Despite this proven fact, a Learning Dynamics study reports that more than 60% of companies do not consider customer satisfaction as a top priority. Reasons for customer dissatisfaction include: Few supplier personnel are aware of what customers actually do with their products or services; In about 20% of companies, sales people do not follow up with customers; senior managers do not …

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5 Statements to Assess Team Bonding

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In his book, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Patrick Lencioni offers a Team Assessment questionnaire to evaluate a team’s susceptibility to the dysfunctions. Below are variations of 5 statements that strive to assess the level of team bonding: All team members are aware of the others’ key activities, and how their actions contribute to the team’s goals. Team members know what they expect from each other and intensely seek to avoid disappointing their teammates. …

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Generosity Is The Genesis Of Trust

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 What does generosity look like? Contributing and connecting without expectation of being repaid. Refusing to blame or demean others. Keeping promises and fulfilling commitments. Telling the truth. Seeking to understand another’s opinion before challenging it. Expressing support for shared truths, values and goals. Clarifying expectations – yours about your associates, and theirs about you. Preparing sufficiently before the work begins. What do you contribute to develop trust? Why are you trusted?

Building Initiative Momentum

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Leaders typically encourage their personnel to demonstrate initiative. They need processes to be improved, problems to be solved and changes to be implemented, which can only occur when their teams are willing to invest additional time and discretionary effort. How do you encourage initiative? How do you overcome reluctance to propose a new idea or method? How do you inspire discretionary effort? Most employees want new challenges; it increases the meaningfulness of their work and …

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3 Actions That Reveal Your Leadership Credibility

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When asked how they judge a leader to be credible, people will typically respond with a phrase like: “they walk the talk.”  Indeed, the consistency with which actions match words defines leadership credibility. And the level of that consistency is determined by how aligned your words and actions are with your personal values and those of your organization. These 3 scenarios reveal how consistently you communicate and act in accordance with your values: How you …

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Are Your Customer Service Reps Expendable?

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Your customer service reps have unlimited access to your customers, yet they are often considered to be expendable and typically treated as such. Are you managing your customer service function as a cost center or as a profit center?  How much of your customers’ satisfaction is impacted by your customer service reps? Exceptional customer service is a proven differentiator. When access to information is so effortless that many products are seen as commodities, when the …

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Hostages of Time

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 Another New Year’s celebration has passed. It’s a moment each year when time stands still, providing us with a precious instant when we can reflect, and hope. It’s also a moment that makes us acutely aware just how much of our lives is controlled by the monitoring of time. In fact, I’d suggest that we are so conscious of time’s drumbeat, so busy trying to make each minute of every day productive, that we’ve become …

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