“The Gauntlet” – My First Book

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Bob Schultek rschultek@staging.elfin-bead.flywheelsites.com 216-272-4449     After serving more than thirty years as a senior executive, including a couple of times as CEO & business owner, I’ve enjoyed triumph and disappointment, and accumulated plenty of scars. Grolistic was founded to share those scars with business leaders to accelerate their growth. Whether we’re assisting with strategy, implementation or leadership, it’s increasingly clear that an organization’s people often make the difference. Your people truly are your most sustainable …

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5 Selling Experience Attributes That Drive Customer Loyalty

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In their book, The Challenger Sale, Dixon and Adamson cite their research into the 50-plus attributes that drive customer loyalty (i.e. more sales per customer), noting that just 38% of that allegiance is due to outperforming competitors on brand, product and service, and only 9% is attributable to better price-to-value ratio than the competition. They discovered that the primary driver of loyalty, at 53%, is the sales experience itself. There are five key attributes that …

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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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